Saying that Cambridge wants to learn something from the arrest of Black Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates by a White police officer two months ago, city officials announced Thursday that an independent panel has been formed to review the details of the case. The panel includes a dozen experts from across the United States whose insight might add meat to a comprehensive analysis of what many have called the most high-profile racial-profiling case in recent memory. Led by Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Washington, D.C., Police Executive Research Forum, the committee also features Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, former FBI Assistant Director Louis Quijas and Yale Law Professor Tracey Meares. “This is a historic opportunity for the city to emerge as a stronger community,” Cambridge City Manager Robert Healy said in a statement. Added Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas, “Cambridge wants to take away something meaningful from this process that can be helpful for the city and the nation.” Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley couldn’t have known that he would reignite a contentious – and long-burning – national debate over the way police behave with Black suspects when he arrested the preeminent African-American scholar at his own home on July 16 after answering a call to look into a suspected burglary. Within days, the image of the slightly built, disheveled-looking Gates being led from his home in handcuffs had the whole nation talking about the role that race played – or didn’t play – in the episode. Before the din died down, the duo would be sipping beers at the White House with President Obama, and all parties involved had promised to glean constructive lessons from the turmoil. Thursday’s announcement about the ad hoc panel put action behind the rhetoric. The panel will provide an “independent assessment” of the arrest and facts leading up to the arrest, Haas said, but he did not give a date for a report to be released.

TAGS: Cambridge, Charles Ramsey, Chuck Wexler, Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates, Louis Quijas, Robert Haas, Robert Healy, Sgt. James Crowley

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