911 call that led to arrest of Harvard University prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. never mentioned race.
The woman who alerted police to the suspected break-in that led to the arrest of noted black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates never mentioned race in her 911 call. Caller Lucia Whalen, 40, saw only the backs of two men she thought were breaking into Gates' house in Cambridge, Mass., said her lawyer, Wendy Murphy. Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas confirmed that race is not mentioned on the 911 tape and said "it was very clear that she wasn't sure" what the men's race was.
"She speculated . . . that one might be Hispanic," Haas told the Boston Globe on Monday.Whalen has not spoken publicly about the incident.
Haas acknowledged that a police report says Whalen observed "what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the front porch" of Gates' home on July 16. Haas said that reference reflects a summary of the case and contains information collected during the inquiry, not necessarily from the initial 911 call.
The "break-in" was merely Gates and a driver attempting to get into his house after he was away on a trip.Murphy said Whalen, who works at a Harvard office about 100 yards from Gates' home, is "personally devastated" by accounts that suggest she placed the call because the men on the porch were black. She said her client phoned because she was aware of recent burglaries in the neighborhood. Gates' arrest on disorderly conduct charges, later dismissed, sparked a heated national debate on police racial profiling.
President Obama, who initially said the arresting officer, white Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley, "acted stupidly," later backed off and invited Gates and Crowley to the White House for a beer to hash out their differences. Quickly branded "brewski diplomacy," the elbow-bending is expected to take place at the White House early this week, officials said.
"I look forward to meeting Sgt. Crowley under more pleasant circumstances, and having that beer," Gates told the Globe in an e-mail from Los Angeles. He said he's partial to Red Stripe and Beck's. Crowley was knocking back a Blue Moon at lunch Friday at Tommy Doyle's Irish Pub in Kendall Square when he got a call from Obama. Obama hasn't weighed in on his favorite brew. But foreign beers are not stocked at the White House, in a tradition dating to the Johnson
administration.Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/07/27/2009-07-27_911_call_over_suspected_breakin_that_led_to_arrest_of_harvard_prof_henry_louis_g.html#ixzz0MUYkF6S6
The woman who alerted police to the suspected break-in that led to the arrest of noted black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates never mentioned race in her 911 call. Caller Lucia Whalen, 40, saw only the backs of two men she thought were breaking into Gates' house in Cambridge, Mass., said her lawyer, Wendy Murphy. Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas confirmed that race is not mentioned on the 911 tape and said "it was very clear that she wasn't sure" what the men's race was.
"She speculated . . . that one might be Hispanic," Haas told the Boston Globe on Monday.Whalen has not spoken publicly about the incident.
Haas acknowledged that a police report says Whalen observed "what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the front porch" of Gates' home on July 16. Haas said that reference reflects a summary of the case and contains information collected during the inquiry, not necessarily from the initial 911 call.
The "break-in" was merely Gates and a driver attempting to get into his house after he was away on a trip.Murphy said Whalen, who works at a Harvard office about 100 yards from Gates' home, is "personally devastated" by accounts that suggest she placed the call because the men on the porch were black. She said her client phoned because she was aware of recent burglaries in the neighborhood. Gates' arrest on disorderly conduct charges, later dismissed, sparked a heated national debate on police racial profiling.
President Obama, who initially said the arresting officer, white Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley, "acted stupidly," later backed off and invited Gates and Crowley to the White House for a beer to hash out their differences. Quickly branded "brewski diplomacy," the elbow-bending is expected to take place at the White House early this week, officials said.
"I look forward to meeting Sgt. Crowley under more pleasant circumstances, and having that beer," Gates told the Globe in an e-mail from Los Angeles. He said he's partial to Red Stripe and Beck's. Crowley was knocking back a Blue Moon at lunch Friday at Tommy Doyle's Irish Pub in Kendall Square when he got a call from Obama. Obama hasn't weighed in on his favorite brew. But foreign beers are not stocked at the White House, in a tradition dating to the Johnson
administration.Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/07/27/2009-07-27_911_call_over_suspected_breakin_that_led_to_arrest_of_harvard_prof_henry_louis_g.html#ixzz0MUYkF6S6
