An Unfortunate Reality

I love Henry Louis Gates. He's always an intelligent voice of change and reason as a panelist on the McLaughlin group. I have tremendous respect for his opinion and his intellect but today I feel sorry for his inability to see things as they are.

I think it is unfortunate that the Cambridge PD chose to arrest him to "deescelate" the situation, but what I find even more unfortunate is that Mr. Gates failed to see the PD assisting him as a resident, and instead saw them targeting him as a black man. He's a MAN, not a black man, a man with glasses, or a man with a cane. He's a MAN and if HE can remember that and focus on it - quite possibly he could recognize that in others as well. I sincerely doubt the police officers arrested him for being a black man and instead, wanted to follow protocol with securing a residence.

Ioffer this other view of the scenario: a 911 call is made, notifying PD of 2 male intruders entering a residence.
Police respond to the residence and find a single black man, the resident of the home. This resident seems aggitated and ready to usher the officers out of the home. The other reported individual, is not present.

The police officers - instead of taking the resident's word of who the other individual was, takes every precaution to ensure that this is not in fact a hostage situation and that Mr. Gates, the resident is not simply acting on orders of the intruder.
To ensure this is a simple case of misunderstanding and that the resident couldn't gain access to his home, the police officer ask Mr. Gates to exit the residence. Rather than see the police officers DOING THEIR JOBS, he instead attacks them verbally which led to the outcome of his arrest.

I feel for Mr. Gates and it is unfortunate that he was arrested, but what I find most unfortunate is that Mr. Gates failed to conduct himself with the patience and decorum for which I know he possesses. I respect his demeanor each week when he is featured as a panelist on The McLaughlin Group and wish that for a moment, he had had the open-minded attitude to show the world another view as he does as a panelist. This was personal to him and he responded as such but it only created a new reality, not the one in which he lived to the moment he was discourteous to the responding officers.

Certainly, as a white woman I may be isolated in my personal experience with police officers "targeting" me racially, however, through too many mistakes in choices I've made I also recognize much of what we experience in life is of our own making. I believe Mr. Gates now also finds himself in a situation of his own making and is failing to own his choices and instead is pointing the finger at a civil servant simply doing his job. That lack of understanding and open mindedness is also tremendously unfortunate.