Wendy Murphy, Lawyer for Lucia Whalen Who Called 911 in the Henry Louis Gates Jr., Arrest Case, Speaks Out, Says her Client isn't Racist

The drama continues with the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Wendy Murphy, the lawyer for Lucia Whalen, the woman who made the 911 call, said that she is not a racist. I thought this incident was slowly moving behind us, but here comes another media blitz. I am not sure where the allegations of racism against this woman came from, but this is the first I have heard of that. Didn't the professor say that he didn't blame her for calling the police?

Attorney Wendy Murphy said, in part: "She did not know the race of the men when she called 911 because of her distance and that their bodies were turned away from her vantage point. Criticism was exacerbated when Mr. Gates challenged police to explain why they would believe "a white woman over a black man."

This statement is issued solely to correct the record and to emphasize that the woman is not racist and was acting as a responsible citizen, with appropriate concern for the safety of the community. She has worked in Cambridge for more than fifteen years, about a hundred yards from where Mr. Gates resides, and was aware of several recent break-ins in the area." Source: NECN

The 911 tapes will be released shortly and it should put the rest some of the lingering doubts of racial profiling in this case. In retrospect, I think Professor Gates was the one who pulled the race card first and blew a fuse without just cause.