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All but the basic facts are almost unimportant; though for clarity's sake, a brief explication is wanting. The observation that led to the police notification may be characterised as two acts of neighbourliness for which both Dr. Gates and Sgt. Crowley as yet have not demonstrated a proper gratitude; one for its protective impulse, the other for the assistance it offered, to wit: An elderly lady saw two men apparently forcing their way into a house. Concerned (the first act of generosity), but not in possession of a mobile phone, she implored a young lady to make the call. She did. (the second act of generosity). In the call, the young lady made no mention of race, meaning that race could in no way have spirited Sgt. Crowley's arrival at Gates' house. As such, here ends the over-reaction, opportunism and the turnstile of cognitive dissonance by camps of both the "outraged" and the "understanding"; each, in emphasising profiling as the default position wherever conflict arises between Blacks and the police, thus undermining the profiling argument in the first instance by means of over-application.

Having arrived at Dr. Gates' house, the police - as the facts stand currently - beckoned Dr. Gates, asking him to identify himself, as is proper, after explaining their reasons for the same. In considering provocations of various kinds, Dr. Gates gave no account that Sgt. Crowley was menacing or indeed untoward in any particular. Instead, by his own account, he entered race into the situation's narrative in a manner that belies both his position, the knowledge in which he is supposed to be expert and his social standing and age difference when compared with Sgt. Crowley.

To put it plainly - as my friend Maurice O. Glinton has said - Crowley should have found in Gates - by reason of Gates' conduct - a mentor by the time their visit was done. Consider the situational dynamics: At the point at which Gates came to his door to respond to Crowley, surely the most recognised professor of African American studies in the world should have been a master at recognising whether race was a factor in Crowley's presence at his door; as one possessing the temperament of a distinguished teacher, surely his first question - by his own admission - ought not to have been, "are you doing this to me because I am a Black man in America"?; surely a professor of African American studies who deals with the subtle cross-currents of race and class ought not to say either: "do you know who I am"? or 'you don't know who you are messing with', thereby exhibiting an oleaginous dependence on discrete class identification that once and currently undermines the meritocracy, which is the baseline of the African American discipline and by which his own people seek advancement.

Media talk - and a talk most irresponsible - has mentioned Dr. Gates' jet lag. However, a fact and trope of the Civil Rights Movement includes long marches and inexhaustibility in the face of deathly violence, which Dr. Gates did not face; as the facts stand. Moreover, such apologists cannot have it both ways: either Dr. Gates failed to behave as was rightly to be expected, and yelled such things as I care not to mention, or he behaved as may be reasonably expected (yelling and shouting) induced by shameless provocation by Sgt. Crowley; a provocation of which he is yet - for all his commentary - to give an account.

General Colin Powell - in another installment of his redemption for the Iraq conflict - spoke wisely and well when he said on CNN on Tuesday night: "When you're faced with an officer trying to do his job and get to the bottom of something, this is not the time to get in an argument with him." This is surely the message that will keep Gates' Black male students alive in encounters with the police; whether or not those encounters are induced by racial profiling.

The above said, there are two final points: Sgt. Crowley did act foolishly in arresting Professor Gates. It may have been the prudent thing to engage him by use of the teaching methods on race Crowley himself claims as his expertise. Also, Crowley said in his police report that the caller mentioned the men forcing their way into the house were Black. This is false. She made no such mention. Make of that what you will.

Second, President Barack Obama entered the fray, unwisely, by saying something which was true concerning arresting Gates, but something which ought not have been said by a President, particularly whilst failing to note that the arrest - however foolish - was induced by Gates failing to behave as may reasonably have been expected by one with his expertise in the subject of race; proving that, in so much of the talk about race, little of practical value seems to have been learned.