The charge of disorderly conduct was dropped five days after Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested at his Cambridge home.
The City of Cambridge said the arrest was “regrettable and unfortunate,” but not an incident of racial profiling.
A spokesperson said the city and Gates agreed that dropping the charges was the best course of action.
Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick also comment on the arrest of the Harvard scholar.
Patrick remarks that the circumstances were worrisome, “for me or someone like me, maybe especially so.”