Mounting pressure to get to the bottom of the controversial arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. is centering on recorded police tapes that may offer a dose of reality amid all the media and political noise.
Cambridge police brass and lawyers are weighing making the tapes public, which could include the 911 call reporting a break-in at Gates' home and radio transmissions by the cop who busted him July 16 for disorderly conduct. "It's powerful evidence because the (people involved) have not had a chance to reflect and you are getting their state of mind captured on tape," said former prosecutor and New York City police officer Eugene O'Donnell, who is now a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan.
Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas said last night he has asked City Solicitor Donald Drisdell to review the 911 tape, which has the potential to either bolster or impugn Gates' stance that he is a blameless victim of racial profiling at his own home. |