Reading this story, I was feeling sorry for the cops through this part:

Henry Louis Gates Jr. had forced his way through the front door of his home because it was jammed, his lawyer said Monday.
Cambridge police say they responded to the well-maintained two-story home near campus after a woman reported seeing “two black males with backpacks on the porch,” with one “wedging his shoulder into the door as if he was trying to force entry.”
By the time police arrived, Gates was already inside. Police say he refused to come outside to speak with an officer, who told him he was investigating a report of a break-in.
“Why, because I’m a black man in America?” Gates said, according to a police report written by Sgt. James Crowley.
Gates — the director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research — initially refused to show the officer his identification, but then gave him a Harvard University ID card, according to police.
“Gates continued to yell at me, accusing me of racial bias and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him,” the officer wrote.

Had Gates simply explained, “Hey, this is my house, I ‘broke in’ because the door is jammed, here’s my ID,” it would have been over. Given that he did physically force his way into the house, there’s really no reason to believe a white person wouldn’t have been questioned as well. I sure hope the cops would question a white guy who broke into my apartment, even if it turned out to be me.

But was this necessary?

Gates said he turned over his driver’s license and Harvard ID — both with his photos — and repeatedly asked for the name and badge number of the officer, who refused. He said he then followed the officer as he left his house onto his front porch, where he was handcuffed in front of other officers, Gates said in a statement released by his attorney, fellow Harvard scholar Charles Ogletree, on a Web site Gates oversees, TheRoot.com
He was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge after police said he “exhibited loud and tumultuous behavior.” He was released later that day on his own recognizance. An arraignment was scheduled for Aug. 26.

Yeah, the yelling and carping about “racism” is obnoxious, but when you’re arrested confronted by police for breaking into your own home, don’t you get a little leeway?

Now, I’m sure, Harvard will be holding all sorts of special counseling sessions for everyone to whine some more.

Jonah Goldberg has some more links at the Corner.

UPDATE: Fixed my hastily typed comment that he was “arrested for breaking into [his] own home.” Of course, it should have been obvious that this was a (rather benign) mis-typing, given that it came immediately after a quote from a news story that gives the actual grounds for the arrest (disorderly conduct). But a certain blogger seems pretty intent on repeatedly accusing me of actually thinking he was charged with breaking and entering.