It’s strange her husband told reporters he didn’t know she had a gun – until he remembered he’d accompanied her to a shooting range several times in recent weeks.

It’s strange the Bishops were questioned in a 1993 case in which a bomb was planted in one of their Harvard professor’s houses. (No one was ever charged with a crime in connection with the incident.)

It’s very strange that Ms. Bishop’s brother died of a shotgun blast 1986, a blast delivered by Ms. Bishop. The official story (until this week, that is) was the shooting was an accident. This was Ms. Bishop’s story, corroborated by her mother. Ms. Bishop supposedly was trying to unload the weapon, with which she was unfamiliar, when it went off – once into a wall, once into a ceiling and once into her brother. He died of the wound.

It’s strange that she then ran down the street with the shotgun, pointing it at drivers, apparently trying to hijack their cars. She was arrested and taken to the police station in her hometown of Braintree, Massachusetts for booking.

While that process was underway, Police Chief John Polio called the station and ordered Ms. Bishop released. Apparently, Ms. Bishop’s mother was a member of the town’s police personnel committee and called Mr. Polio for assistance.

Releasing someone who is at least a “person of interest” in a fatal shooting did not sit well with officers on the force, but the chief’s the chief, so Ms. Bishop was released to her mother’s custody. Apparently, Chief Polio told officers Ms. Bishop was “too emotional” to be interviewed and she would be questioned when she’d calmed down.

I used to be a police reporter and I have to say, I’ve never heard of police granting anyone a “cool down” period before questioning. (“Sarge, let’s let this fellow have a few hours to gather his thoughts. We want a nice, level playing field when we ask him questions. Wouldn’t want him to making contradictory statements or anything.”)

Ms. Bishop was given 11 days (!) to cool and eventually, her brother’s death was ruled an accident and everyone forgot about it – perhaps even during the 1993 Harvard bomb investigation – until Ms. Bishop (allegedly!) shot six people, killing three.

The case of Amy Bishop is strange indeed. What’s not strange is that kid-glove treatment is given to educated, politically connected white people. Can you imagine an African-American male wanted for questioning in a shotgun death being released to his mom for a “cool down” period?

In another Boston suburb last summer, educated, wealthy, politically connected African-American Henry Louis Gates was arrested after being found inside his own home. He was, by all accounts, agitated when he was accosted by the police officer. He was not given a “cool down” period. His mother was not called. He was taken away in handcuffs and charged, although the charges were later dropped.

On Tuesday, the Justice Department decided no federal charges will be brought against the five New York City police officers who fired 50 bullets into a car carrying Sean Bell, killing Mr. Bell on what was to have been his wedding day in 2006. Two men in the car with Mr. Bell were injured. None of the men in the car were armed.

No state charges were brought against the officers. They may be subject to internal department sanctions, but that possibility is currently unclear.

The only “cool down” period Mr. Bell received was in the morgue.

© Mark Floegel, 2010

After the better part of two days hanging around airports or crammed into a seat in coach, I was tired, sweaty and cranky. I did, however, have my house keys with me, so I didn’t have to break into my own house, as Henry Louis Gates did. The police were not called; there was no dispute.

Last night and again this morning at O’Hare I had to coach myself – “Keep breathing, stay cool, you’ll get home eventually.” Because there was a real part of me that wanted to get up into the face of an incompetent United Airlines employee. (Yes, United is the worst. That guy with the guitar is just the beginning.)

So, I know – with acid still burning in my stomach as I type – how Mr. Gates must have felt when, coming in from China, he found himself first having to break into his own house, then having a cop show up and demand that he prove he actually lives there.

Was it an act of racism on behalf of Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley, as Mr. Gates says? Or was Mr. Gates rude and out of control, as Sgt. Crowley says? I don’t know, but I have some experience with police officers. I started my career as a newspaper reporter covering cops and courts. I talked to cops every day. Later, as an activist, I’ve been a police liaison at dozens of demonstrations and direct actions. And yes, I’ve been arrested for civil disobedience on more than one occasion. (How many more than one? Don’t ask, it’s impolite. The idea isn’t to run out and get arrested. The idea is to make the world a better place and if you happen to get arrested in the process….)

At face value, Sgt. Crowley was doing the right thing, at least at first. A neighbor called to report two men breaking into a house. Had he failed to check it out, he would have been derelict in his duty.

He knocks on the door and a black man answers. Sgt. Crowley asks him to step outside. Mr. Gates refuses. Here’s where the stories part ways. Mr. Gates says he felt Sgt. Crowley immediately treated him as a suspect because he’s black. Sgt. Crowley says he asked Mr. Gates to step outside because he didn’t know who else might be in the house and he was concerned for his safety.

This is where I start to swing toward Mr. Gates’s version of events. Mr. Gates is an academic. He’s middle aged, with a gray beard and a limp. A photo of his arrest shows him in a polo shirt and gray slacks. Let’s call him what he is: A nerd. Maybe black people look alike to some whites, maybe white people look alike to some blacks, but to some extent, all nerds look alike, too. Police shouldn’t engage in racial profiling, but criminal profiling is part of the job. Does the average Cambridge housebreaker dress like he’s at a church social?

Mr. Gates tells Sgt. Crowley that he is the homeowner. Maybe he’s PO’ed, maybe he doesn’t thank the sergeant for being so quick to respond to protect his property. Maybe he suspects the response was as quick as it was because the report was about a black man in a white neighborhood.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that Mr. Gates was a jerk. He did, however, produce proof that he was in his own home. No matter how poorly he behaved, once that proof was provided, it was case closed, time to move along, sergeant.

I have great respect for many of the police officers I’ve worked with. They are people I am proud to pay taxes to support. That said, I have never – never – seen a police officer attempt to de-escalate a situation with an angry person. The attitude I’ve seen consistently – even from the best cops – is: “I’m tougher than you are. No matter how high you take this, I’ll take it one step higher, to prove I’m tougher than you.”

So, when Sgt. Crowley says he’s not racist, I think he sincerely believes he’s not racist. He just got into a chest-thumping contest he decided he wasn’t going to lose, even if that meant putting Mr. Gates in cuffs and hauling him downtown.

The crucial point, though, is that if the man who answered Henry Gates’s front door had the same polo shirt, limp, gray beard and nerdy glasses, but was white – I don’t think this confrontation would have gone off to the races. A black man who knows he’s in the right and a white cop looking for answers. Both men came to the situation with baggage, but if we’re honest, we’ll admit white America packed those bags.

I come from a family of poor immigrants. My family never owned slaves, but still I’ve enjoyed white privilege my whole life. A black guy looking at me doesn’t know if I’m the grandson of immigrants or the seventh son of the Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. And I have to assume that until he gets to know me, he may be justifiably suspicious. Given America’s history on race, that’s reasonable.

If I walk down a dark street at night and there’s a woman walking alone ahead of me, I’ll cross over, because I understand how ominous those clumping steps can sound.

This ain’t rocket science. It’s not Sgt. Crowley’s job to automatically know who Henry Gates is. It is his job to know that because of Boston’s racist history, white cop/black male interactions begin with one foot in the bucket. If he doesn’t know that, if his department is not including that in his training, then they’re – what’s the word President Obama used last night? Stupid.

© Mark Floegel, 2009