Word: whalen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Lucia Whalen, the Harvard Magazine employee who called police two weeks ago about the possible break-in at professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s home, spoke publicly for the first time Wednesday, saying at a press conference that she had been deeply hurt by accusations that she is a racist...
...frankly afraid to say anything," said Whalen, who seemed to be fighting back tears at times and was visibly shaken. "People called me racist and said I caused all the turmoil that followed, and some even said threatening things that made me fear for my safety. I knew the truth but I didn't speak up right away because I did not want to add to the controversy...
...Whalen had been cited in a police report of the incident as saying that she saw "two black males with backpacks" trying to enter Gates' home. But tapes of the 911 call and the police radio transmissions released on Monday show that Whalen, who was actually calling police on behalf of an elderly woman at the scene, did not mention race in her call. She noted repeatedly to the police dispatcher that she did not know if the men lived at the home and were simply having trouble with their key, and only said that one of the men might...
...Whalen also said that she could not see clearly from her angle and that she did not know if the men had a key or if they "just had a hard time with their key." But she noted that the men "used their shoulder to try to barge...
...just saw it from a distance, and this older woman was worried thinking, 'somebody's breaking in someone's house, they've been barging in,'" Whalen said to the dispatcher. "And she interrupted me, and that's when I had noticed, otherwise I probably wouldn't have noticed it at all, to be honest with you. So I was just calling because she was a concerned neighbor, I guess...