Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrest

If you have been following any news at all, I'm sure you are aware that one of our local police department is under the spotlight after the arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. The arrest has somehow become a racial issue, and we have all heard from the supposed representative of all things racial, Rev. Al Sharpton. My issue is that there ISN'T a racial issue to begin with!

Let's breakdown the events leading up to the arrest minus any racial cues. A thoughtful neighbor witnesses a man attempting to wedge a door open. She calls the police. An officer arrives to find a man in the residence. What would an average person do? Duh. The officer asks for identification. Man in residence refuses and starts yelling. Officer attempts to calm man down. Man continues to yell. At some point, officer and man exit residence. Man continues to yell at the officer. A crowd builds; public peace has been disturbed. Officer arrests man.

Reading the simple facts, there appears to be nothing wrong with the arrest. The officer was in the process of investigating a supposed crime in progress. The man did not cooperate with the officer. The man then proceeds to disturb the peace. Open and shut case if you ask me. So what went wrong? Well, the man was Henry Louis Gates. He was black. Second part? The arresting officer was Sergeant James Crowley, a white man. There you go. State of the nation. A white officer arresting a black man better have overwhelming evidence or Al Sharpton will be on your a**.

Now, I'm no racist. I'm Asian, and I've dealt with racial crap throughout my life. I just have it easier because Asians are stereotyped to be weak, quiet, and really really REALLY good at math. Blacks on the other hand have a harsher stereotype. It sucks. But it doesn't mean we have to walk around with a chip on our shoulder. If I just broke into my own home, and a cop comes into investigate, of course I'll prove to him I live there. Go take my ID. Check the pictures in the house. I'll even identify what's in the fridge. Why the heck would I say things like, "This is what it's like to be an Asian man in America!" How does that help anything?

As law-abiding citizens, we are required to work with police officers. They are doing their duty to investigate crimes, even if it's stupid. That's what we pay them for. What would we rather Sgt Crowley do? Should he have thought, "Oh man, this guy is yelling really loud. I should leave and let things take it's course"? Of course not. He was answering a breaking and entering call. It was his duty to check it out and to verify identities.

I admit, I can get pretty heated when some idiot comes up to me and makes fun of my native language. I can be annoyed when people do the stupid slanted eyes thing. And I get embarrassed for the other person when they mistaken me for another Asian race. But I always try to take a minute and make sure if they've just made a horrible embarrassing mistake. You have to place yourself in their shoes and see what they were thinking. Take the stupid chimpanzee cartoon a few months back. Stupid Rev. Al Sharpton started this whole thing about the cartoonist making fun of President Obama. The TARP act was written by Pelosi and a chimpanzee just died. Where did President Obama fit in?

Maybe Sgt. Crowley should have slowly backed down. Maybe the arrest shouldn't have taken place. But Mr. Gates should've cooperated when asked by a law enforcement official. There was no need for yelling. No need to claim racial prejudice. And definitely no need for our President to claim the Cambridge Police "acted stupidly." In fact, I am ashamed President Obama has chosen to put himself into the issue like he did, especially since he admitted he doesn't have all the facts. He is our President; our face of the nation. He no longer represents one race or one friend (The President and Mr. Gates are friends, for those not in the know). Just as there is still racism in the world, we have to be careful not to let that turn into reverse racism. An officer cannot do his job if he needs to second-guess himself before he arrests someone.

I know this might be offensive to some, but this is how I feel. We are one world, one people. One. Stop all this race, class, gender nonsense.

Disclaimer: I am basing my thoughts on what I have read in the news and police report as of this afternoon. I may or may not have the full details of the Gates arrest, so please forgive me if I have interpreted things wrong.