Serious career limiting move - Cambridge Police

Major fuck-up in Cambridge Mass -- from the Boston Globe:

Harvard professor Gates arrested at Cambridge home
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation's pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling.

Police arrived at Gates�s Ware Street home near Harvard Square at 12:44 p.m. to question him. Gates, director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard, had trouble unlocking his door after it became jammed.

He was booked for disorderly conduct after �exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,� according to a police report. Gates accused the investigating officer of being a racist and told him he had "no idea who he was messing with,'' the report said.

A bit more -- it seems he was being a bit provocative:

Friends of Gates said he was already in his home when police arrived. He showed his driver�s license and Harvard identification card, but was handcuffed and taken into police custody for several hours last Thursday, they said.

The police report said Gates was arrested after he yelled at the investigating officer repeatedly inside the residence then followed the officer outside, where Gates continued to upbraid him. "It was at that time that I informed Professor Gates that he was under arrest," the officer wrote in the report.

Provocation or not, this is absurd. The idea that someone who breaks into their own house and is able to provide identification is liable to arrest is insane. I feel sorry for that poor arresting officer after Gates and the Harvard Legal team get through with him...