Cop arrest of black man: Too much ado

It seems that much ado about nothing is being made by the media about the incident in Cambridge, Mass. where policeman James Crowley arrested a belligerent Henry Gates of Harvard University for failure to provide identification for being in a home that was reported as a break in.

The policeman is now being painted as a racist for just making sure that the right person was in the right house. I, as a white person, have been asked to identify myself in the past by both whites and non-whites. I have been with a bank for more than 20 years, and most tellers will cash a check on sight, just knowing me. Yet when a new teller is on duty, be they he or she, a white or non-white, I will be asked for more identification despite of the fact I have already jotted down my bank ID number on the back of the check.

In an other incident, I had to call a locksmith after I locked myself out; the locksmith who arrived wanted identification before he proceeded, and, yes, he was black. Issues like this are not about race, but people who are just making sure that nobody is being ripped off.

Walter Santi

Bloomingdale