Results tagged “henrylouisgatesjr”

• Senator John Kerry included a $20 million earmark in a Defense Department bill to fund the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. [Boston Globe]

• Martha Coakley spent lots of cash gearing up for a Senate bid even before there was an open seat to run for. [Boston Herald]

A day after celebrity cop James Crowley's service records were released for public consumption, we got a glimpse at what he gets paid for all of the aggravation the privilege of serving the city of Cambridge. We can thank the Cambridge Chronicle for this list of the salaries of every non-school city worker for FY'09 (7/08-6/09). We know everyone is only really interested in the $114,687.52 Crowley was paid, not to mention the $109,566.93 he took home in 2008. It's noteworthy that around 120 - Bostonist counted quickly - Cambridge employees earned more than Crowley in FY'09.

According to the Boston Herald, Cambridge police sergeant James Crowley has had eight citizen complaints filed against him since joining the Cambridge Police Department in 1998. Crowley arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr. on July 16 for disorderly conduct, a charge that was later dropped. According to Police Commissioner Robert Haas, those eight complaints represent "less than 1 percent" of Crowley's contact with citizens, which includes 422 arrests, 800 investigations, and 1,866 motor vehicle citations. Two complaints were filed by black men. Crowley was cleared of any wrongdoing in every case.WCVB reported Crowley is on vacation and not worried about the records being made public.

The Cambridge Chronicle reports on "CPD," the new track by Cambridge rap duo NBS, which takes shots at both Sergeant James Crowley and his wrongfully arrested victim, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It's no surprise that the track slams Crowley—the group says "Crowley has a reputation on the street as being unreasonable"—but the lines about Gates might surprise you. "I ain't never seen Skip in the hood ... I think you might have needed a taste of what jail's like." [Cambridge Chronicle]

Justin Barrett, the Boston cop who called Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. a “banana-eating jungle monkey" in an e-mail is suing the city of Boston for violating his civil rights and harming his reputation. Really. He is. Barrett is mad that Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Police Commissioner Edward Davis both publically stated he should be fired. Davis did state that Barrett's due process rights would be fully administered during the termination process.

Mr. Bartley's burgers in Harvard Square has just introduced a "Sgt. Crowley" burger to its menu. Since the burger joint has offered the Skip Gates burger for 10 years now, it's probably the only place in the United States where you can reenact the thrilling truncation of civil rights and acrimonious weeks-long fallout of Gatesgate entirely with fast food.

Lucia Whalen, the woman who called 911 in the Henry Louis Gates Jr. case, spoke to the media on Wednesday. Whalen defended her actions and said the suggestion that race impacted her actions hurt her. Tapes of the call proved that Whalen did not mention race. Despite what transpired after she called the police, she said she would do it again. In other Gates news, Lee Landor, the deputy press secretary to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, resigned after calling Gates a racist and President Barack Obama "O-dumb-a." Former Secretary of State Colin Powell discussed the Gates situation on CNN last night.

Cambridge Police released the 911 tape and audio transmissions from the July 16 arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. The initial 911 call refers to "two gentlemen" with no reference to race. Race first came up when, according to WCVB, the dispatcher asked "Are they white, black or Hispanic?"

In an interesting development in the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. over a week ago, the person who called in Gates for breaking into his own house says she didn't cite Gates' race when calling in the potential crime. Caller Lucia Whalen has "worked in Cambridge for more than 15 years, about 100 yards from where Mr. Gates resides," according to her attorney Wendy J. Murphy, and "never said she saw two black men." While this creates quite a twist for folks (including this Bostonist) who suspected that the non-crime might not have been called in were it not for Gates' race, it doesn't excuse the fact that Gates was arrested even though he didn't commit a crime. It is unfortunate that this information was not reported from the start; the way information is unfolding piece by piece suggests that someone—the Cambridge Police Department?—has been attempting to keep details under wraps. The police report specifically states that the caller reported "two black males with backpacks"—perhaps that should have been two males with black backpacks?—but at the end of the report Whalen is cited merely as having seen "a man wedging his shoulder into the front door to pry it open." The report also describes Whalen as white, when she actually has “olive-colored skin and is of Portuguese descent" according to Murphy.

This may be the first time we've actually enjoyed reading something on Livejournal (though we might've started off with something more like "Among snowless Cambridge streets / the only moving thing / was the hand of the black man"). Choice excerpts from ayun's take:

In the aftermath of controversies about a Cambridge police officer arresting a famous African-American professor for existing in his own home (also known as Gatesgate, and of his own choice to call the action "stupid," Barack Obama has proposed the unthinkable: a discussion. Talking about race in America? Get out! Breaking a longstanding tradition of ignoring racial conflict, Obama has officially invited Cambridge police officer James Crowley and Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates, Jr., to the White House for a beer and a bit of conversation about the incident. Obama's hope is that the debacle can morph into a "teachable moment" for everyone, and be brought to a conclusion that will allow the nation to focus once again on providing health care to all its citizens. Latest news has it that Skip has accepted the offer. We're excited to see the transcript of that chat, if it's released.

The Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrest saga won't stop. Local and national media have gone into full feeding frenzy mode. At one point today, the Herald's website was unavailable. It's back up. The Latest:

Sergeant James Crowley, the Cambridge police officer who arrested Henry Louis Gates Jr., actually appeared on WEEI's Dennis & Callahan show this morning to give his version of the events. Crowley reportedly was asked about president Barack Obama's comments on the arrest of Gates last week, and was given a chance to apologize. He didn't exactly criticize Obama directly. He did say it was "regrettable" that someone would comment on this incident "without knowing the whole story". Crowley appeared to speak in a very calm, rational manner during his call-in appearance. It's his right to choose to explain or not explain himself in any forum he wishes. Given Dennis & Callahan's history, their show might not be the right choice. Look, Ed Harding is an ex-sports reporter, too. But, he is not controversial.

"There are not many certainties in life, but it is for certain that Sgt. Crowley will not be apologizing," said Sergeant James "Arrestsalot" Crowley after Henry Louis Gates, Jr. kindly asked him to apologize for putting him in the cooler for four hours for the dubious crime of being a black college professor in his own house who also happens to possibly like yelling at white cops who are trying to arrest him for no reason. This was presumably before the President of the United States said that Crowley acted "stupidly."

• The arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. has sparked a media frenzy. The Cambridge police union defended the officer involved in the incident, while Herald columnist Peter Gelzinis accused Gates of "exploiting" this incident for a vague reason about a PBS special. Yvonne Abraham criticized Cambridge police in the Globe by actually using the word "dunderheaded," which may be accurate but is rarely used in public discourse. Gates is considering legal action and wants an apology. WCVB's Liz Brunner interviewed Gates on Tuesday and he explained his perspective on what happened, said the police report was fabricated and reiterated his call for an apology.

The charges against Henry Louis Gates Jr. will be dropped. Gates, the director of Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research, was arrested at his Cambridge home on Thursday. The Cambridge Chronicle recapped the media attention the arrest got. Someone even is selling a t-shirt inspired by the incident.

Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested at his home Thursday by Cambridge Police after officers responded to a call from a woman who saw a man trying to "pry" open the front door of Gates's house. According to the police report, Gates initially refused to identify himself but eventually provided his Harvard identification card. The report alleges Gates was yelling during the incident and accused the officer of racism and said he "wasn't someone to mess with." Gates is the director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard. A spokesman for Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. told the Globe that Gates is scheduled to be arraigned on August 26.