THIS IS SICK - AT 5:16 P.M. ET:  The Gates arrest nonsense continues, but please read the opening paragraphs of this New York Times story, and see if you don't agree that there's something very sick here:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Lucia Whalen, whose 911 call led to the arrest of the Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home, made her first public comments Wednesday, saying at no time did she ever mention race to the responding police officer.

Ms. Whalen’s statements contradict the police report filed by Sgt. James Crowley, who said Ms. Whalen told him outside Mr. Gates’s home that she had seen “what appeared to be two black males with backpacks” on the porch of the yellow single-family house.

Ms. Whalen said that the only words she exchanged with Sergeant Crowley in person were, “I was the 911 caller.” She said that he responded, “Stay right there.”

Ms. Whalen, 40, her voice cracking, said she was deeply hurt by the reaction to the incident on July 16. She said she and her family had been the target of threats, which led her to speak out.

“When I was called a racist, I was the target of scorn and ridicule because of things I never said,” she told the reporters gathered in a park here at midday. She added, “The criticism hurt me as a person but also hurt the community of Cambridge.”

COMMENT:  I don't think the reporter who wrote this story understood its implications.  Consider:  What if this woman did describe seeing two black men?  What's wrong with that?  You give the police as full a description as possible.  Race is part of that description, as painful as it may be to use the words or hear them.  When a relative of mine was mugged in Washington, D.C. some years ago, she gave an African-American police officer a full description, including the race of the assailant.  The officer wasn't in any way offended. 

And consider this as well:  The woman reports that her family has been the target of threats.  Yet, the reporter allows the subject to drop.  Who is making these threats?  Why aren't the police involved?  Are they threats of physical violence?  Why isn't that a major part of the story? 

This is degenerating into a kind of social sickness.  Cambridge announces itself as an enlightened, progressive community.  It is not.  It strikes me as a community based on the fear of saying or doing anything that is not politically acceptable. 

By the way, Ms. Whelan works for Harvard Magazine.  I wonder how far she'll be allowed to go now. 

July 29, 2009