I understand the professor will be taking some action. Do keep us posted.

g

What country do you live in? And how do you presume Professor is not taking legal action now. And even if everything he says is true, how do we know he would be found innocent? Driving without a suspended license, which is what happens to you if you don’t pay a ticket is fairly serious. It is aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle BUT almost all of time you would be issued a desk summons to take care of it. You would almost never be put in jail for it BUT again the cops do probably reserve that right.

As for your statistic about race in NYC – how idiotic! What percentage of people who live in NYC do you think are white as opposed to minority? Why don’t you read this book and then come back to us with what you think:

http://www.amazon.com/Racial-D.....0833005065

Your skepticism is just the kind of thing that makes nothing change in this country and yes, I’m sure that if Professor was trying to “cash in” the first thing he’d do is post on some Desi blog. Sometimes I can’t believe I share the planet with such people.

Gaurav, same goes for you – you should know better. There’s tons of reason why someone might not come forward right away including family shame, etc. And then again, we don’t know what the Professor did or did not do, or is and is not doing. I’m glad he was courageous enough to write about his experiences.

I’m a resident of NYC and have always had trouble with the cops. So I trust my own experience which validates Professor’s piece much more than what you say.

Phouc

If you say Mid-day or even TOI are not reputable – they have carried junk and fake news before, so I might agree. Rediff is probably the most reputed source for Indian news, and I do not have answers for your questions at this point, I only hope we can all get the answers in near future.

tgfi,
At no point did I use any quotes from any article directly, or aim to pass off other’s work as mine. So no clue how ‘basic blogging ethics are lacking’. Isn’t that the only intended rule for ethics? No plagiarism?
Or should I be more concerned about the ‘rule book’ of attribution and loose focus on the bigger goal?
This is the ORIGINAL interview from Prof. Ravi Shankar through our correspondence with him by e-mail. …

Morever, If you read the rediff article , it says that the same appeared earlier in 2 other places “The article was earlier published in Cool Justice and Hartford Courant.”

Some basic blogging ethics lacking here..

Why are only blogs carrying this article so far? After 20th July (Gates arrest), any paper would have lapped this news up – definitely atleast the local Connecticut newspaper.

As of 2nd Aug, 22 days after this, why hasnt he still filed a complaint? Why hasnt he sued? Anyone in their right minds would sue and win a large settlement from the city of NYC – if they had a good case.

If this is really true, we definitely need to send this to newspapers and let the news channels get a whiff of it – but it may be a little too late to be screaming wolf.

NY police is completely insensitive from decades of dealing with scum and hence would treat most people under suspicion roughly. But at the same time, I have driven a car, a van and a U-Haul truck across NYC innumerable times and never been harassed by anyone except Desi taxi drivers who drive like they’re in Meerut. I hope Prof Shankar has atleast remembered the names of the policemen who called him a ’sand-nigger’. They’ll obviously deny it but it’ll make one heck of a story.

I got the article from this site – http://news.rediff.com/report/.....-in-us.htm and then Googled the prof’s name to send our questions. I think there are some answers within the interview to your questions – the incident happened on July 10th, a week before Prof. Gates. The media could have possibly ignored his story – there’s at least a benefit of doubt unless proven otherwise. And Prof. Ravi Shankar does mention that he should have called an attorney before but was going through the situation first time ever, so maybe he didn’t all the right things he ought to have done. Anyways, your skeptical view is a point for healthy debate, and I’m sure we will know the answers sooner than later. We will keep track of any developments and keep the post up to date.