The Western™ Reacts to Gates Arrest

In July, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., arguably America’s foremost African-American scholar, was arrested at his Cambridge, MA, home by a white police officer and charged with disorderly conduct. The incident sparked several weeks of heated, nation-wide debate about race, law enforcement, and the Black experience in America.

Big Red Tool reporters polled the The Western™ community.

• Walter Samuels, Pre-Law Major: “Oh, no, not again! If there’s one lesson we should have all learned from the Rodney King crisis, it’s that racism simply doesn’t exist on the police force unless a trial jury says it does.”
  
  
• James MacPhearson, Police Officer: “Police are always trained to use racially sensitive tactics when on patrol. In Bowling Green, we carry black nightsticks, instead of our usual white-painted ones, when we go into minority neighborhoods to enforce law and order.”
  
  
• Rachel Wicks, Evanston freshman: “I’m glad they finally bagged that monopolist Gates. I hate Windows Vista.”
  
  
• Brock Llewellin, Evangelist: “It is abhorrent that race may have played a role in the Gates arrest. It’s not as if the guy’s gay!”
  
  
• Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY): “What did Obama say about it? I say the opposite.”