Let cooler heads prevail

Monday, July 5, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

Harvard professor Henry Gates and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley became the subject of international headlines last year after Crowley arrested Gates.

It all started after a limousine service brought Gates home from the airport after a long trip. Gates had trouble with a jammed front door, and the driver helped him try to get it open.

A concerned neighbor called police, reporting that two men were trying to get into the house, and police responded to the potential burglary in progress. Crowley arrived after Gates gained entry and asked the professor to step outside and provide identification. From there, things quickly deteriorated.

Gates said the officer was eyeing him as a suspect. He demanded the sergeant’s name and badge number. Crowley said Gates was yelling, accusing him of being a racist. Crowley is white. Gates is black. Crowley asked the 58-year-old professor, who walks with a cane, to stand outside and once there, Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct. The entire encounter took six minutes.

Although prosecutors quickly dropped the charges, the case was widely noticed because of the racial issue and how the police handled the situation. Gates is an eminent scholar. Crowley is a well-respected officer. President Barack Obama initially said the police “acted stupidly,” but backed off that comment and invited Gates and Crowley to the White House to have a beer with him and Vice President Joe Biden in what became known as the “beer summit.” Obama said he saw it as a “teachable moment” for the nation.

Last week an independent commission created to study the arrest issued its report, saying that both Gates and Crowley had opportunities to de-escalate the situation, which is painfully clear. The report said both men showed fear — Crowley in investigating a potential burglary, Gates in having an officer show up and demand he go outside. The report concluded that the arrest was “avoidable” and determined that both men bear responsibility.

“The committee believes if Sgt. Crowley and Professor Gates had been able to make their positions understood, and had made greater efforts to de-escalate the tensions of the encounter, the incident could have been resolved quickly and peacefully,” said Charles Wexler, the committee chairman.

If this incident tells us anything about society today, it’s that we often react too quickly and too brashly. From the guy who makes an obscene gesture on the freeway to the profane comments on many websites, there is too much needless confrontation. People could certainly defuse many conflicts by walking away or responding politely. More importantly, if people took the time to listen to one another and understand each other, there would be fewer problems.