The woman whose report of a possible house break-in led to the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. said she never mentioned race during her 911 call and is “personally devastated’’ by media accounts that suggest she placed the call because the men she observed on the porch were black, according to a lawyer acting as her spokeswoman.
[She] saw the backs of both men and did not know their race when she called 911, said Wendy J. Murphy, a Boston lawyer from New England School of Law. [She] phoned police, Murphy said, because she was aware of recent break-ins in the area.
But the 911 operator would have asked if he or she were worth his or her salt. [911 tape is out: he did ask, “white, black, or hispanic,” she thought one maybe hispanic, wasn’t sure, couldn’t say about the other] In Oak Park they ask, as they should. They don’t want to go looking for a black if a white did it, which they would do, considering the near universal blackness of such perps in Oak Park, most but not all being spillovers from the Austin (city) neighborhood immediately to the east.
You never know. It could be a white guy “jimmying” (O’s word) the front door or back door or garage door.
A bit of history: Years ago, I told 911 I’d just seen two black kids on a bike, that being the going description of bike thieves on the prowl from Austin. The operator berated me, I complained to her superiors and got a call from a sergeant apologizing.
It was relevant to my call-in of suspicious behavior, and everyone but this (tyro) operator knew it. She sounded white, by the way, and had something to learn.
===========
Later: See bracketed note above.
Blithe Spirit 
JB,
I was in a retail electronics shop in Rogers Park a few years ago where a city inspector was shaking down the shop owner for a bribe. I called the inspector’s boss who asked for a description..he looked like a White Sox fan (big guy in ill-advised shorts and White Sox Visor)..was my response.
The bossy person berated me for using racially charged language, which was bewildering given the inspector was Caucasian. I had never considered there was some type of profiling to a White Sox fan.
JBP
LikeLike
This is ridiculous, but it starts with the media reports. In crime stories, the MSM have for years routinely refused to tell the public the race of perpetrators, even when they were violent criminals still at large. Then, when they reported this particular story, they implied that the woman was some sort of racist for providing necessary information, as if she were upset by the sight of two black males. Never mind that she saw what would look to any sensible cop or civilian like a crime in progress. Race is the #2 identifier the police use of a suspect, after sex. While some news stories sneak in the necessary information by way of a mug shot or grainy surveillance video, the majority, which routinely suppress such information, are worthless to the general public, but invaluable to criminals (which is the point of the suppression).
That the woman is “devastated,” is due to her awareness that she has been portrayed as a racist, and left open to the sort of victimization reserved for white “racists.” But a call referring merely to “two men” would have been worthless as a suspect description.
LikeLike
This is of course a tough one…one of the toughest in our national history…I think I could honestly argue it either way, because I’ve been in both sides of this racial setting…but I’ll pass on the ideology and simply add a note of personal sorrow…you were probably right to mention “Austin” in your call, but it hurts deeply when someone like me (Andy Greeley and Bob Newhart too!) can recall another and lovelier Austin…once a Norman Rockwell world to grow up in….really, a Post Magazine cover that sprang to life for few green years
LikeLike
TWIMC — If racial sensitivty should keep us from reporting strangers jiving around our neighborhoods, we are ignoring the possibility that there may well be Asians (Japanese or Chinese (not to mentkon Vietnamese) who are prowling around up to no good — in our vicinity. For sure, we must not offend any of these rascals (nor African Americans, either) by reporting their possibly criminal intent!! There is no point in making trouble for any minority — everybody knows tha it’s only Euro-Americans who pursue criminal careers!! Let’s stop being utterly foolish !!
LikeLike