The incident was first reported in
The Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper, the Monday morning after the arrest. Following a write-up by the
Associated Press that afternoon, the story spread quickly. Public interest in the arrest grew when newspapers published the photograph showing a handcuffed Gates being escorted away from the front door. A number of individuals commented on the incident in the days that followed. The
Governor of Massachusetts,
Deval Patrick, stated that he felt "troubled" about the situation. The Mayor of
Cambridge,
E. Denise Simmons, suggested that the incident was a "teachable moment" and that she hoped there would be meaningful dialogue between Mr. Gates, the police force, and the general public. Some members of the Harvard community raised questions about
racial profiling. The Reverend
Al Sharpton discussed the incident and referred to it as one of "police abuse or racial profiling", calling it "outrageous" and "unbelievable." Gates argued that the police picked on him because of his race, and said that he would use the incident to raise awareness of alleged police mistreatment of blacks, suggesting that he may plan a documentary about it. Sgt. Crowley's supporters noted he was chosen by a black police commissioner to serve as an instructor for a
Lowell Police Academy course entitled "
Racial Profiling", which Crowley has taught since 2004. While working as a campus police officer at
Brandeis University in 1993, Crowley had tried to revive African American
Boston Celtics star
Reggie Lewis with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after the latter suffered a fatal heart attack. Crowley received public support from many police officers, including African Americans, who portrayed him as a good and fair officer. Sgt. Leon Lashley, a black officer who was present at Gates's arrest, said he supported Sgt. Crowley's actions "100 percent." Another officer in the Cambridge police department said "racism is not part of it, and that is what is frustrating." David E. Frank, a senior news reporter for
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and former prosecutor in Massachusetts, commented that, from a legal standpoint, "the decision not to prosecute certainly seems to be the correct one." In his analysis, even if the prosecution could prove all of the disputed factual allegations in Crowley's report, Massachusetts case law does not consider offensive and abusive language to be disorderly conduct per se, and they would be unlikely to prevail in court. Attorney
Harvey A. Silverglate suggested that the charges were dropped because Gates would almost certainly have prevailed in court with a First Amendment defense, an outcome that would have severely curtailed future arrests for disorderly conduct in "contempt of cop" situations. In an interview with
CNN,
Colin Powell, former Secretary of State and
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman offered opinions on both sides of the incident. With regard to Gates, Powell said "I think he should have reflected on whether or not this was the time to make that big a deal". Powell recalled that he was taught as a child "not to argue with a police officer trying to do their job" and that Gates should have instead cooperated to avoid making the situation difficult, suggesting that Gates could afterwards file a complaint or lawsuit if he disagreed with the officer. With regard to Sgt. Crowley, Powell stated that: "Once they felt they had to bring Dr. Gates out of the house and to handcuff him, I would've thought at that point, some adult supervision would have stepped in and said 'OK look, it is his house. Let's not take this any further, take the handcuffs off, good night Dr. Gates." A review conducted by the Cambridge Review Committee, which was formed by Cambridge City Manager
Robert W. Healy at the recommendation of Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas, concluded that the incident was avoidable, noting that "Sergeant Crowley and Professor Gates each missed opportunities to 'rachet down' the situation and end it peacefully." Both Gates and Crowley have been active participants with the
Simon Wiesenthal Center in
Los Angeles. Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the center, has invited both of them back to the center in order to "create the next real 'teaching moment' for our nation."
Justin Barrett e-mail On July 28, it was revealed in the media that Justin Barrett, a 36-year-old
Boston Police Department officer who had been on the job for two years, and is also a member of the
Massachusetts National Guard, sent a mass e-mail to fellow National Guardsmen and to
The Boston Globe in which he referred to Gates as a "jungle monkey." Although the email was signed only
JB, when he was asked about it, Barrett admitted to his BPD superiors that he was the author. According to an article in the
Boston Globe, Barrett wrote the email containing the racial slur "in reaction to media coverage of Gates's arrest July 16," In the e-mail, Barrett wrote, "If I was the officer he [Gates] verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC (oleorosin capsicum, or
pepper spray) deserving of his belligerent non-compliance." During the course of the message, Barrett used the phrase "jungle monkey" four times, three times in reference to Gates and once in reference to Abraham's column, which he characterized as "jungle monkey gibberish." In reaction to the news of Barrett's conduct, Boston Mayor
Thomas Menino compared the officer to a "cancer" and said he is "gone, g-o-n-e" from the Boston police force. Barrett, in a television interview, said that he used "a poor choice of words" in the email. He added, "I did not mean to offend anyone." Barrett also stated, "I have so many friends of every type of culture and race you can name. I am not a racist." Barrett was discharged from duty on February 5, 2010. On April 26, 2010, the Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) denied Barrett unemployment benefits. The DUA board's decision would be affirmed or reversed four times, the last being on July 15, 2013, when the
Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled that his "egregious misconduct" was "obviously intentional." ==Presidential involvement==