And just to add a new dimension to the story, another African-American Harvard professor has come forward with a somewhat similar tale of being arrested in 2006 when the Cambridge cops asked him to step outside of the protection of his home. There are complicating issues here (read the story below from today's Boston Globe), but one has to wonder about the comparative police records of Harvard's AfAm and Caucasian faculty members.

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Second professor accuses police of bias
Harvard official asserts racism in 2006 arrest
By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff | August 6, 2009

A second black Harvard professor accused the Cambridge police of racism yesterday in wrongfully arresting him outside his home nearly three years ago.

S. Allen Counter, a prominent Harvard Medical School professor and head of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, spoke about his arrest on assault and battery charges in an editorial published yesterday with The Bay State Banner. The disclosure follows last month's high-profile arrest of renowned African-American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Counter's attorney, Ozell Hudson Jr., told the Globe yesterday that Counter is considering his legal options over the manner he says he was treated after he complied with a request to step outside his house in December 2006 when police arrived to investigate a call by his former wife. She reported to police that Counter had tried to push their teenage daughter out of a moving car during an argument.

Counter said he had not previously publicized the arrest because he feared that police would harass him and his family. But he told Harvard colleagues about the incident and said he felt he had been mistreated because he is black. Counter said he was not told why police were at his home nor why he was being arrested.

In recent years, he said, it has become a common belief among the black community at Harvard that they should stay put when police come to the door.

"The word around Harvard is never step outside your house with these guys,'' Counter said in a phone interview. "We advise people not to step out. You call an attorney and stay in your house.''

Cambridge police would not comment on Counter's arrest yesterday. But a spokesman said that police have a right to enter homes without a warrant if there is probable cause.

"We don't bait people to come outside,'' said Officer Frank Pasquarello, the police spokesman. "All across America, people step outside their houses and meet us on the porch. We don't go in if they come out. But once we're in there, we don't have to take you outside to lock you up.''

Gates has said in previous interviews with the Globe that he was hesitant to cross the safety of his doorway when Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley asked him to step outside while investigating a possible burglary.

Neither Gates nor his attorney - Harvard law school professor Charles Ogletree, who Counter said has assisted in his case - responded to requests for comment yesterday.

It is unclear whether Counter's experience factored into Gates' decision to initially remain inside his home during his run-in with Crowley.

"I was polite, and yet police lied and said I was loud, just as they did with Professor Gates,'' Counter said yesterday.

Counter collapsed at the police station because of a heart condition and was transported to Cambridge Hospital, where he said he was handcuffed to a hospital bed all night while a police officer stood guard in his room. He was ultimately acquitted of the assault and battery charges during an October 2007 trial.

"I feel this is a case of racial and criminal harassment on the part of police,'' Counter said.