BOSTON — Prosecutors dropped a disorderly conduct charge Tuesday against prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who was arrested at his home near Harvard University after a report of a break-in.
The city of Cambridge issued a statement saying the arrest “was regrettable and unfortunate,” and police and Gates agreed that dropping the charge was a just resolution.
“This incident should not be viewed as one that demeans the character and reputation of professor Gates or the character of the Cambridge Police Department,” the statement said.
Supporters say Gates — the director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research — was the victim of racial profiling.
One of them, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, was unsatisfied with the resolution.
“The charges have been dropped, but the stain remains. … Humiliation remains,” Jackson said. “These incidents are so much of a national pattern on race.”
Gates declined to comment Tuesday, and his lawyer, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, did not immediately return a request to comment on the charge being dropped.
Hawaii: U.S., Canada plan world’s largest telescope
A consortium of U.S. and Canadian universities on Tuesday announced it has decided to build the world’s largest telescope in Hawaii. Mauna Kea volcano was picked by Thirty Meter Telescope Observatory Corp. The other finalist candidate site was Chile’s Cerro Armazones mountain. The $1.2 billion telescope should allow scientists to see some 13 billion light years away — a distance so great and so far back in time that researchers should be able to watch the first stars and galaxies forming.
New Jersey: Police officer dies from shootout wounds
A Jersey City police officer who was critically wounded in a shootout with two armed robbery suspects last week died Tuesday, one day before his 38th birthday and the same day police engaged in another gun battle nearby. Detective Marc A. DiNardo, a 10-year veteran who had been on life support, was pronounced dead after doctors harvested his organs for transplant. The 37-year-old was hit by a shotgun blast to the face July 16 as his SWAT team stormed the apartment where the suspects had taken cover.
Illinois: State treasurer to run for Senate seat
Illinois’ state treasurer says he’s going to run for President Barack Obama’s old Senate seat. Democrat Alexi Giannoulias said Tuesday he’ll formally announce his candidacy this weekend. The first-term state treasurer hopes to win the seat now being held by Sen. Roland Burris, who has served under a cloud of suspicion since his appointment to the seat by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Burris has said he will not seek the seat in 2010 because of fundraising problems. Five-term Republican Congressman Mark Kirk announced Monday that he’s running. Blagojevich, a Democrat, was impeached and removed from office in January after being charged with allegedly trying to sell Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.
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