July 21 (Bloomberg) -- Police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, dropped a disorderly conduct charge against Harvard University African American studies professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., calling his arrest last week “regrettable and unfortunate.”

“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,” said a statement today issued jointly by Gates, the police, the city of Cambridge and the Middlesex County district attorney. “All parties agree that this is a just resolution to an unfortunate set of circumstances.”

Gates, 58, director of Harvard’s W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African & African American Research, was handcuffed and hauled away in a police car July 16 at 12:44 p.m. in front of his home in Cambridge, where Harvard is located, according to a police report. Police responded after a woman caller reported a man trying to force open the door of the Ware Street home with his shoulder, according to Officer Carlos Figueroa’s arrest report.

With stories appearing in The Times of London and newspapers across the U.S., the arrest drew international attention and rekindled some Harvard faculty members’ concern that police may be singling out black men for harassment, said S. Allen Counter, a university neuroscientist who was stopped by Harvard’s campus police in 2004. A panel commissioned by university President Drew Faust earlier this year said the school should create an outside ombudsman to review how its officers interact with students, faculty and staff.

‘Thoughtful and Polite’

“We know Skip Gates to be a thoughtful and polite man,” Counter said. “This case has prompted a number of prominent African-Americans in the Boston area to ask whether African- American males are being targeted by the Cambridge police.”

Gates, Harvard’s top expert on black history and culture, was arrested after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,” according to the police report. He was charged with disorderly conduct after shouting, “This is what happens to black men in America” during a confrontation with police on his front porch, an officer’s report said.

“I am gratified that the charges against Professor Gates have been dropped and that all parties involved have recognized and reaffirmed his strong reputation and character,” Faust said today in a statement. “I continue to be deeply troubled by the incident.”

Damaged Door

The accounts of Cambridge police and Gates differed. Gates found himself unable to enter his damaged front door after returning from a week in China filming a documentary, “Faces of America,” according to a statement from his lawyer, Charles Ogletree, a Harvard Law School professor and founder of the school’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice. Gates entered by the rear door, and his driver carried his luggage in, the statement said.

Minutes later, a Cambridge police sergeant appeared at his front door, saying he was responding to a report of a suspected break-in, Gates’s statement said. Gates showed his Harvard identification and driver’s license and asked the policeman for his name and badge number, Ogletree said. The sergeant walked away without answering, the statement said.

Gates followed the policeman to the front porch, where he found additional officers, and was arrested and handcuffed in front of bystanders, the statement said.

Cambridge police said Gates answered an officer’s request for identification by shouting, “No I will not,” according to Figueroa’s report. Gates accused the arresting sergeant of racism and told him, “You don’t know who you’re messing with,” the report said.

‘Your Mama’

A report by Sergeant James Crowley describes a confrontation with Gates that started in the foyer of the Harvard professor’s home and escalated. Gates demanded that Crowley show proof of being a police officer, according to additional police reports posted on the Boston Globe’s Web site.

After Gates produced his Harvard identity badge, Crowley said he was ready to leave the house because the professor’s shouting was “making it difficult for me to transmit pertinent information” to the dispatcher, the report said. When Crowley asked Gates to follow him outside if he had further questions, Gates said, “Yeah, I’ll speak with your mama outside,” the sergeant wrote.

Gates continued accusing the sergeant of racial bias “and continued to tell me that I had not heard the last of him” on the front porch as other police officers and bystanders watched, according to the report.

Mug Shot, Fingerprints

Crowley said he handcuffed Gates and ordered him transported in a police cruiser to a Cambridge police station, where his mug shot and fingerprints were taken, according to the report.

Charges of campus racism arose five years ago when Harvard University Police stopped Counter, a 25-year faculty veteran who is black, on suspicion of being involved in a robbery. Counter said he was on his way to his office when police threatened to arrest him.

“People don’t want to talk about it,” Counter said yesterday in a telephone interview. “It’s a form of racial humiliation.”

Counter said he had spoken with Gates since last week’s arrest.

“He was deeply saddened by this and abused by the process,” Counter said.

Yale, Cornell, Duke

Gates has taught 18 years at Harvard and is one of 20 faculty members with the title of university professor, created in 1935 for “individuals of distinction,” according to the Web site of Harvard’s Department of African & African American Studies. He received an award popularly called a genius grant from the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1981.

His most recent book is “In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past” (Crown, 2009). Gates previously taught at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut; Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 21, 2009 17:16 EDT