President Barack Obama made an effort today to contain the controversy he admittedly helped fuel by his comments yesterday on the subject of Prof. Henry Louis Gates' arrest by a Cambridge, Mass., police officer last week. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)And the controversy about the arrest of Harvard Prof. Henry Louis Gates by a Cambridge, Mass., police officer continues.
Gates claims he was arrested by a racist cop. The cop claims Gates was uncooperative and hostile. The police report shows Gates immediately jumped on victim-of-racism-bandwagon, which given what he does for a living wouldn't be surprising. But, then again, the cop gets to write the report.
However, an African-American cop who was present during the arrest said he supports what the arresting officer did "100%."
Yesterday, President Obama said the police "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates in his own house after he had produced an i.d. showing he lived there. However, that's not exactly what happened according to the police report.
During a radio interview yesterday, Sgt. James Crowley explained the circumstances under which he arrested Gates for disorderly conduct, noting that he followed standard police procedure and that he would not apologize for doing his job.
Earlier today, the Cambridge Police Department held a press conference during which heads from several police groups and unions expressed their support for Crowley. One of the chiefs asked Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and President Obama to apologize for their remarks.
An hour or two after the press conference, Obama made an impromptu appearance at the daily White House briefing to say he had spoken to Crowley and that he still believed both Crowley and Gates overreacted during the incident.
The President, who said the incident could be "a teaching moment" for the nation, also admitted he used an unfortunate choice of words when he said the police "acted stupidly," noting he wished he had "calibrated those words differently."
Like a true Boston man, Sgt. Crowley told Obama he would be happy to go to the White House, sit down with the President and Gates and have a beer.
Below are links to some of the stories on the subject and the actual police report filed by Sgt. Crowley.
Crowley pleased by president’s phone call, from The Boston Globe
The Gates 'teaching moment', from Anderson Cooper (AC360)
Below is a link to the police report of Gates arrest as well as an embedded copy: Gates Police Report
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