The 911 Call And The Gates Arrest

To hear the call, click here.

From the Associated Press: "The 911 caller who reported two men possibly breaking into the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. did not describe their race, acknowledged they might just be having a hard time with the door and said she saw two suitcases on the porch." Sgt. James Crowley, who arrested Gates on a later dismissed charge of disorderly conduct, spoke with the caller, Lucia Whalen, after he arrived at Gates' home and wrote in his report that Whalen told him "that she observed what appeared to be two black males with backpacks on the porch." Whalen's attorney says that Whalen never mentioned the mens' race to Crowley. The New York Times reports that Crowley's attorney, Wendy Murphy, said that Whalen "never used the word black and never said the word backpacks to anyone."