The Other Black Harvard Professor’s Home Arrest

August 12th, 2009

Apparently Gates isn’t the only Harvard Professor that’s had trouble with Cambridge Police:

Second professor accuses police of bias
Harvard official asserts racism in 2006 arrest
By Tracy Jan
Globe Staff / August 6, 2009

A second black Harvard professor accused the Cambridge police of racism yesterday in wrongfully arresting him outside his home nearly three years ago.

S. Allen Counter, a prominent Harvard Medical School professor and head of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, spoke about his arrest on assault and battery charges in an editorial published yesterday with The Bay State Banner. The disclosure follows last month’s high-profile arrest of renowned African-American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Counter’s attorney, Ozell Hudson Jr., told the Globe yesterday that Counter is considering his legal options over the manner he says he was treated after he complied with a request to step outside his house in December 2006 when police arrived to investigate a call by his former wife. She reported to police that Counter had tried to push their teenage daughter out of a moving car during an argument.

Counter said he had not previously publicized the arrest because he feared that police would harass him and his family. But he told Harvard colleagues about the incident and said he felt he had been mistreated because he is black. Counter said he was not told why police were at his home nor why he was being arrested.

In recent years, he said, it has become a common belief among the black community at Harvard that they should stay put when police come to the door.

“The word around Harvard is never step outside your house with these guys,’’ Counter said in a phone interview. “We advise people not to step out. You call an attorney and stay in your house.’’

Cambridge police would not comment on Counter’s arrest yesterday. But a spokesman said that police have a right to enter homes without a warrant if there is probable cause.

Second professor accuses police of bias
Harvard official asserts racism in 2006 arrest

It is absolutely ones legal right not to come outside just because the police request for you to, and you do not have to let them in unless they have a warrant. If they choose to come in anyway they must have probable cause of crime in progress, or they are taking an illegal action.

I wonder what happened with the wife’s allegation. In typically bad reporting, this article doesn’t even address the issue.

Here were my thoughts on the Gates incident and how it’s been handled:

Harvard Professor Gates, and Police Sgt Crawley To Visit White House

Does the 911 Call Prove No Racial Profiling In The Gates Arrest



posted in Racial Injustice | | | View blog reactions |


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  • D. Yobachi Boswell

  • Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.

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