CNN is reporting that the Cambridge Police Department has dropped all charges against Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, who was arrested last week outside his home for disorderly conduct.

A neighbor snapped this photo of Gates in handcuffs during the arrest. Interestingly, one of the officers on the scene was black.

UPDATE: It's official. The charge has been dropped, and the city of Cambridge released a statement calling Gates' arrest "regrettable and unfortunate." That should have been clear on Thursday of last week. Why it took until today, a full four days after the arrest, for Cambridge to do the right thing remains a mystery to us. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the press picked up on it yesterday?

Gates had been spotted by a white neighbor forcing his front door open on Thursday because the lock was broken. She called 911 assuming that he was breaking in. When the cops arrived, Gates understandably raised a fuss about racism, and was inexplicably jailed for four hours.

The Cambridge Police Department refused to confirm or deny the report.