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African-Americans Must Get Angry About Racial Profiling

By Drew Nelles,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 1, 2009 11:35 AM CDT

(Newser) – Henry Louis Gates and Barack Obama have been “very publicly slapped down for speaking up and speaking out about police misbehavior,” but African-Americans “need to roar out their anger at such treatment,” Bob Herbert writes in the New York Times. Gates, not the officer who arrested him, is in the right, and we need to “focus a spotlight on such outrages and the urgent need to stop them.”

The NYPD stops more than a half-million people every year, and the vast majority are black or Latino—and completely innocent. Meanwhile, blacks are incarcerated at absurdly disproportionate rates. “We’re never going to have a serious national conversation about race,” Herbert writes, so blacks themselves must “do whatever is necessary to stop a continuing and deeply racist criminal justice outrage.”

Henry Louis Gates Jr., the director of Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research, is arrested at his home in Cambridge, Mass.
Henry Louis Gates Jr., the director of Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research, is arrested at his home in Cambridge, Mass.   (AP Photo/Demotix Images, B. Carter)
President Barack Obama, right, and Vice President Joe Biden, left, have a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., second from left, and police Sgt. James Crowley in the Rose Garden.
President Barack Obama, right, and Vice President Joe Biden, left, have a beer with Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., second from left, and police Sgt. James Crowley in the Rose Garden.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is accusing Cambridge police of racism after he was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior.
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is accusing Cambridge police of racism after he was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he "exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior."   (AP Photo/Cambridge Police Dept.)
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You can yell at a cop in America. This is not Iran. And if some people don’t like what you’re saying, too bad. You can even be wrong in what you are saying. - Bob Herbert

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 29 comments
kenFFFF
Mar 20, 2010 1:32 AM CDT
ON MARCH 19 , 2010 FRIDAY APPROXIMATELY 5:00 PM A GROUP OF FOUR UNERCOVER POLICE OFFICERS DRESSED AS CIVILIANS APPROACHED AN AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE PEDESTRIAN NEAR THE CORNER OF LEAVENWORTH STREET AND TURK STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO , CALIFORNIA. THEY HANDCUFFED THE INDIVIDUAL AND MADE HIM LIE ON HIS STOMACH ON THE GROUND AND STARTED BEATING UP ON HIM. WITHIN MINUTES ADDITIONAL POLICE OFFICERS ARRIVED AT THE SCENE MAKING THE TOTAL NUMBER OF OFFICERS MORE THAN TEN. SOME OFFICERS TRIED TO DISPERSE THE CROWD THAT WERE YELLING AT THE POLICE OFFICERS OPPOSING THEIR CONTINUAL PHYSICAL ABUSE ON THE SINGLE HELPLESS , HUNDCUFFED AND LEGCUFFED INDIVIDUAL .THE TOTAL BEATING LASTED ABOUT 20 MINUTES UNTIL THE CROWD BECAME AGRESSIVE AND BECAME ROWDY . FINALLY THE POLICE WAGON CAME UP WHICH TOOK THE SO CALLED SUSPECT WHO WAS CARRIED INTO THE WAGON BY SEVERAL OFFICERS WITH THE SUSPECT PANTS HALF DOWN SHOWING HIS BEHIND LIKE AN X-RATED MOVIE ACTOR.ONE OFFICER WAS HEARD SAYING "YOU ARE BUSTED". ANOTHER PEDESTRIAN REPLIED "YOU BUSTED HIS HEAD WITH THE SIDEWALK , DON'T PLANT FALSE EVIDENCE ON HIM IN THAT WAGON".ANOTHER WOMAN STARTED YELLING AND CRYING CALLING THE SUSPECT'S NAME BECAUSE SHE GOT THE CHANCE TO SEE AND RECOGNIZE HIS FACE WHILE HE WAS BEING TAKEN INTO THE POLICE WAGON . SHE WAS UNABLE TO SEE THE PERSONS FACE THE WHOLE TIME BECAUSE THE OFFICERS HANDS AND KNEES WERE ON TOP OF HIS HEAD WHILE THE BEATING WAS GOING ON WHICH COVERED HIS FACE FROM THE CROWD THE WHOLE TIME.
kokuaguy
Aug 8, 2009 1:25 AM CDT
If you had been a person of color, it is far more likely you would not have lived to tell your "harrowing' tale, Free.
freethemall
Aug 3, 2009 6:38 AM CDT
I see nothing wrong with Americans of African descent calling themselves African American. Anytime I am asked my ethnicity, I respond, European American. I'm wondering if, Like Sarah Palin, you don't understand that Africa is a continent, not a country.

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