Today we asked a friend of ours to guest post. As I listened to the dust up over Henry Louis Gates Jr.,--or Skip to the President--whose handcuffing the president called “stupid” and proves “that race remains a factor in this society,”….well, I immediately thought of my friend and her ordeal about 2 years ago. She too was cuffed and ultimately hauled to criminal court. Her story shows that Gates was actually treated with kid gloves by comparison.
“Gates finally produced a Harvard ID.” My friend was given NO chance to explain, let alone accuse anyone of sexism.

I turn you over to her.

A fine spring morning in the Northeast corridor, me getting on a train to go to a doctor’s appointment in the city. (I live in a middle-class suburb, drive a German luxury car, and have the look and polish of a middle-class woman who makes ~$60,000 per year as an RN consultant to the drug industry. I am petite, dirty blond hair, green eyes; I look the opposite of Skip Gates.)

About two weeks prior to this day’s train ride, I was riding the same train home from the city. I was tired and the train was sparsely populated. I was reading a newspaper and had not noticed the train ticket taker come upon me. Rather than ask for my ticket the ticket taker, in a most icky way, ran his ticked punch over my leg in a sort of slow s-curve fashion. I jolted up, newspaper tumbling. Shocked, I handed him my ticket. I sat there after he moved on, growing enraged. When he passed by again, I said loudly: “Don’t ever Touch ME again.”

This unleashed his fury. He denied his stomach-churning maneuver and threatened to throw me off the train. I asked another male ticket taker to give me the offenders badge number, but was rebuffed, with mirth, I might add.
I shut up, but when I got home I called the train headquarters and lodged a complaint.

Fast forward to that fine spring morning two weeks later, as I made my way into town to see my doctor. I had no more than stepped onto the train when the ticket taker—the buddy of the guy I’d lodged a complaint against—started to harass me.
(Actually, I lodged a complaint against him as well for refusing to give me the badge number, but that was fruitless, as they are not required to give out any badge numbers!)

He hovered over me screaming for my ticket. I had not even taken my seat yet, and was on my cell phone, answering a call from MD office wanting to confirm my appt. I hung up and dialed the train headquarters. I got a customer rep on the line, and said I was being harassed. The rep heard all that was going on. I asked to be left alone by the harassing ticket taker and asked a black female ticket taker to stamp my ticket. She refused. She also refused to talk with the train's customer rep, who had suggested I put him on the phone with her.
The harassing ticket taker called the police and demanded I be removed from the train; he said I was refusing to pay my fare. The police boarded at the next stop and hauled me by my arm off the train, even as I had the customer rep on the phone willing to explain to them the situation. The cops hung up my phone.
On the train platform, the big Irish police demanded I show them ID. I said, “No, why should I? I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Before you can say hennypenny, I was up against a cement piling being handcuffed, my purse and magazine scattered on the platform. Next thing I was hauled into the train station and put in a small cage cell. I was in tears, and in a bit of shock. The police rifled through my handbag to get ID and my home address and my diver’s license. I was in cuffs for about 35 minutes and repeatedly asked for tissue to wipe away my tears. An officer put a paper towel in my behind-me cuffed hands. I was left to have a runny nose down my face for 30 minutes.

About 8 cops crowed in to see the show. Giggles and burritos were consumed by the male cops. Finally I was asked what had happened. In cuffs and caged, I explained that I had never tried to skip payment, and that I had filed a complaint against the ticket taker just 2 weeks prior. I was released. BUT …I was still charged with “failure to pay.” I went to the train headquarters and showed the customer rep the deep scratchs around my wrists that turned into deep purple bruises later.

I won’t go into the 3 trips I had to make down to the Criminal Courthouse. I did not have the extra money to pay for an attorney, so a young black court attorney told me to just plead guilty and pay the fine. I stood there ready to do so and then a more experienced attorney who happened to be in the room, stepped in and said “wait a minute” after hearing my story.
The older attorney got the judge to listen to him and he now agreed to see the letter I’d brought from the train’s customer rep, attesting to the fact I’d tried to pay and that, in fact, had a Visa receipt showing I’d purchased my fare minutes before boarding the train, that I’d lodged a complaint against the train ticket taker, that I’d been on the phone with the customer rep during the ordeal.

The judged refused to drop the charges but some thing was worked out that if I did not get into trouble with the law for one year the whole case against me would be sealed.

What is my point? While there are legitimate racial complaints, Skip Gates does not have one. Skip Gates refused to show ID and was not cuffed or cited for that. I, little miss white girl, refused to show ID and I was cuffed and cited. I tried to fight a sexist attack on my person and I learned that it is more trouble that it is worth. I too wanted an apology. Gates got his. The Mayor of his city is tripping left and right to say wow, our bad.
Where is mine?

Hearing the president declaim that Skip’s incident shows that “race remains a factor in this society,” is just plain wrong. If race was a factor, then it worked to his advantage as far as I can tell.
When Skip refused to show ID, the police did not immediately cuff him and search his house. When I refused to show ID I was immediately cuffed and my purse and wallet searched. NO ONE took the time to sweet talk me into showing my ID. My shoulder still hurts when I raise it too high.

Skip Gates only does damage to any racial justice issues that yet remain when he cries like a baby to the president of the United States and the press over his treatment.
Wanna hear a sob story? The guy who sexually mishandled my leg got off scott free. I still curdle in remembrance of the creepy feel of the cold ticket punch snaking up my leg. In the bowels of a criminal court building I still stand indicted of a crime I did not commit. Skip got a hug from the POTUS for crying race. I simply learned my place.

Amanda No last Name.
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From the Post account:
Gates was already inside the house when police arrived but initially refused to identify himself, cops said.
"They did not believe him when he said that he was in his own home. He was totally mistreated," said Allen Counter, a colleague of Gates who spoke with his friend after the incident.
Police said Gates -- who is director of Harvard's prestigious W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African-American Research and who, in 1997, was named to Time magazine's 25 Most Influential Americans list -- was arrested after he exhibited "loud and tumultuous behavior."
He warned the cops, "You don't know who you're dealing with," according to the police report.
When Gates was asked to step out on the front porch and talk, he allegedly responded, "No, I will not!" and, "I'll speak with your mama outside!"
When the cop explained he was investigating a break-in, Gates snarled, "Why, because I'm a black man?" the report claims.
Gates finally produced a Harvard ID.
As police started to leave, "Gates began to yell . . . accusing me of being a racist," one officer said in the report.
Gates eventually came outside, where the shouting continued in front of witnesses.
Then Gates -- ranting, yelling and "alarming" passers-by with his "outburst" -- was arrested, cops said.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07212009/news/nationalnews/charges_dropped_a...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/07/22/harvard.gates.interview/index.html