Gates arresting officer has track record of race-based complaints
Published: August 19, 2009
Updated 23 minutes ago
Crowley was cleared of wrongdoing in all those cases, the Boston Herald says.
According to the paper, Crowley has been involved in 422 arrests during his career, as well as some 800 investigations. The eight complaints against him “represent less than one percent of his interactions with the public,” according to Cambridge, Massachusetts, Police Commissioner Robert Haas.
The police department released its internal-affairs files on Crowley after freedom-of-information requests from the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, AP reports.
In one incident, the files show a complaint from a young black male who said Crowley gave him a ticket after complaining that the officer “stopped young looking black men.” According to records, Crowley allegedly referred to the complainant as “homeboy.”
The Herald reports:
In another case from 2002, Crowley was investigating a robbery when he questioned two black men in a car and one filed a complaint criticizing “the lack of restraint the officers demonstrated in this situation.”
The man writes: “I am curious if the description of ‘Black Male’ immediately suspends the rights of all brown skinned individuals within a 10-block radius.”
Commissioner Haas pointed out in a letter to the Herald that not only was Crowley cleared of wrongdoing in all the instances where complaints were filed against him, he has received two commendations for his work on the force.
Crowley arrested Gates, a professor of African-American Studies at Harvard University, on July 16 while investigating a report of a burglary at Gates’ home. Gates had been unable to enter his home and was seen jimmying the front door to his house. After a loud confrontation between the two men, Crowley arrested Gates on a disorderly conduct charge. The police and prosecution later agreed to drop the charges.
Gates alleged that he was a victim of racial profiling; Crowley denies the claim.
While the previous article indicates that Crowley was cleared, the following update is more specific. This information may suggest a bias but no gross abuse of power overall. Crowley has been cleared of "wrongdoing". Questions remain due to shoddy reporting, if nothing else. Judge for yourself.
ReplyDeleteJames Crowley cleared in 8 previous complaints
Two claimed racism
By Edward Mason
Thursday, August 20, 2009 - Updated 10h ago
Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley - whose arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. sparked a national debate on race - has been cleared on eight citizen complaints slapped against him, including two by blacks who charged racism, records show.
The heavily redacted documents, released after two requests by the Herald, reveal an unidentified black man stopped in 1999 for driving the wrong way down a one-way street claimed Crowley called his friend a “homeboy” and slapped him with a $525 citation as “an act of frustration” because he “stopped (2) young looking black men with no warrants, no criminal background and a very clean driving record.”
In a 2002 case, Crowley detained two black men police took for robbery suspects. Both were released, but one complained: “I am curious if the description of ‘Black Male’ immediately suspends the rights of all brown skinned individuals within a 10-block radius.”
Police cleared Crowley in those and six other citizen complaints filed since he joined the force in 1998, records show.
Crowley has been involved in 422 arrests and about 800 investigations, and has written 1,866 motor vehicle citations, Police Commissioner Robert Haas wrote in a letter to the Herald, accompanying the documents.
Those eight complaints “represents less than 1 percent of his interactions with the public,” Haas wrote. Gates’ attorney Charles Ogletree could not be reached.
Crowley was responding to a call of a possible break-in when he arrested Gates for disorderly conduct July 16, triggering charges of racism from Gates and others. The charge against Gates was dropped.
Crowley and Gates met last month for a White House beer summit to clear the air on the brouhaha. President Obama admitted he spoke hastily when he knocked the Cambridge cops for “acting stupidly” in the Gates arrest.