CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The woman who dialed 911 to report a possible break-in at the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. said Wednesday that she had been wrongly labeled a racist based on words she never said and hoped the recently released recording of the call would put the controversy to rest.
With a trembling voice, Lucia Whalen, 40, said she was out walking to lunch in Gates’ Cambridge neighborhood near Harvard University when an elderly woman without a cellphone stopped her because she was concerned there was a possible burglary in progress.
Whalen was vilified as a racist on blogs after a police report said she described the possible burglars as “two black males with backpacks.” Tapes of the call released earlier this week revealed that Whalen did not mention race. When pressed by a dispatcher on whether the men were white, black or Hispanic, she said one of them might have been Hispanic.
“Now that the tapes are out, I hope people can see that I tried to be careful and honest with my words,” Whalen said.
The arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, has said his information on the race of the suspects came during a brief encounter with Whalen outside Gates’ house; she contradicted that Wednesday, saying she made no such description.
Gates’ arrest for disorderly conduct at his own home by a white police officer sparked a national debate over racial profiling and police conduct. The controversy intensified when President Barack Obama said police “acted stupidly” when they arrested his friend.
Whalen, a Harvard alumni magazine employee who is a first-generation Portuguese-American, said she lived in fear during the immediate aftermath of the arrest.
“The criticism at first was so painful I was frankly afraid to say anything. People called me racist. Some even said threatening things that made me fear for my safety,” said Whalen, whose husband, Paul, put his hand on her shoulder in comfort her as she spoke. “I knew the truth, but I didn’t speak up right away because I did not want to add to the controversy.”
She said she felt more comfortable speaking publicly after the tapes were released.
“I was called racist and I was a target of scorn and ridicule because of the things I never said,” she said. “The criticism hurt me as a person, but it also hurt the community of Cambridge.”
Despite the trouble it caused her, Whalen said she would make the call again.
“I’ve had much reflection on that, and, yes, I would make the call,” she said. “If you’re a concerned citizen, you should do the right thing.”
