Racial Profiling is a Reality

Racial Profiling is a Reality

A common reality for a people of color is that they will be handcuffed, questioned, and will not receive any apologies for the mistreatment by their local police department. It does not matter what your level of education is, the kind of car you drive or the clothes that you wear. If you are a minority in this country, you will most likely be stopped by the police.

When you look at the picture of the handcuffed, gray haired 56 year old Professor Gates, does he look like a burglary suspect? Does he look threatening enough to do bodily harm to the police officers that were on his front porch?

Whenever a police agency accost or arrests someone of color without appropriate cause, they have the tools in place to explain or justify their actions. Officer Crowley said he was fulfilling his duty by investigating a report of a burglary in progress and that Professor Gates became unruly during the encounter. Well was there truly an appropriate cause to arrest Professor Gates? Let's put ourselves in Professor Gates' position.

While he was returning home after a very long flight from China, he couldn't get into his home because something was wrong with his door. Professor Gates had to push the door open to gain entry. He then sat his suitcases down and was calling Harvard University to report the door problem when the policeman knocked at his door. The policeman said he was investigating a possible burglary and wanted to see Gate's identification...in his own home. Gates asked to see Officer Crowley's identification and asked how long he had been on the force. He also asked the officer if he looked like a burglar in his polo shirt and walking with a cane? He asked how many burglars did he know who opened the door when someone knocked?
Somehow the officer expected the professor to have a cheerful attitude when having to prove that he lived in the home and being suspected of burglarizing his own home.
He produced identification that proved that he lived in the home and yet, he was still was arrested for tumultuous conduct or disorderly conduct.

If you look at the arrest practices associated with disorderly conduct in the Boston and Cambridge area, you might find it to be similarly to San Jose's own 647F arrest practices. Too often African American and Latino encounters with the police are distasteful, rude, and poorly handled. I have frequently driven down a street and continue to see young African American or Latino males sitting on the curb, being
handcuffed because of a fix -it ticket or because they fit the racial descriptions of a suspect.

The one thing I can say to Professor Gates is that he will not get an apology from Officer Crowley or the police department.....just as it is the policy of San Jose's Chief Davis and his department to issue no apologies for their misdeeds when interacting with communities of color in San Jose. There is a feeling of entitlement running through many police departments as they interact with communities of color thus putting a damper on apologies coming from those departments.

As president Obama said, this can be a teachable moment. As a result, I call on our leaders in the city of San Jose to convene a courageous conversation about race as it relates to the police/community interactions. If our leaders fail to have this conversation then we can expect to see further antagonism, mistrust and problems develop between the police department and the communities of color in San Jose. This is one sore that we dare not let fester.

Rev. Jethroe Moore II
President,
San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP