(NAME-MCE) Gates arresting officer takes a pass on Obama's 'stupidity' comment

[Anselmo Villanueva]

July 23, 2009

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2009/07/68495180/1
Gates arresting officer takes a pass on Obama's 'stupidity' comment

[image: HENRYGATES]<http://blogs.usatoday.com/.a/6a00d83451b46269e201157227ec4b970b-popup>The
Cambridge, Mass., police officer who arrested Henry
Louis Gates Jr<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a.BsJVLi9k7U>.
declined to criticize President Obama directly this morning for saying the
Cambridge department "acted stupidly" in arresting the Harvard-based
African-American scholar.

But James Crowley<http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/07/cambridge_sgt_d.html>did
call the comments "regrettable."

He just told a Boston radio station: "I think it is regrettable that anybody
on either side of this issue would make comments ... without knowing the
whole story, without talking to those who were there who have firsthand
knowledge of the events and who saw themselves the way in which professor
Gates acted and what led to his arrest."

UPDATE: White House press secretary Robert Gibbs just semi-clarified Obama's
remarks: "Let me be clear. He was not calling the officer stupid. But at a
certain point the situation got out of hand."

While Obama wanted last night's press conference to be mostly about health
care, his comments on the Gates case are getting as much attention. The
president also said race "still haunts us," and that too many blacks and
Hispanics are still pulled over without cause.

Crowley defended Obama in part, saying "the president has a lot of other
daunting tasks ahead of him. I wish for the good of the whole country that
he is successful in efforts to do the many things that he has to."

For the record, here is most of what Obama said about the situation. We'll
excerpt at length because it's a fairly complicated story.

"I don't know all the facts. What's been reported, though, is that the guy
forgot his keys, jimmied his way to get into the house, there was a report
called into the police station that there might be a burglary taking place
-- so far, so good, right?

... My understanding is at that point Professor Gates is already in his
house. The police officer comes in, I'm sure there's some exchange of words,
but my understanding is, is that Professor Gates then shows his ID to show
that this is his house. And at that point, he gets arrested for disorderly
conduct -- charges which are later dropped.

Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what
role race played in that, but I think it's fair to say, number one, any of
us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge Police acted
stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were
in their own home; and number three, what I think we know separate and apart
from this incident is that there is a long history in this country of
African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement
disproportionately. That's just a fact.

... That doesn't lessen the incredible progress that has been made. I am
standing here as testimony to the progress that's been made.

And yet the fact of the matter is, is that this still haunts us. And even
when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics
are picked up more frequently and often time for no cause casts suspicion
even when there is good cause."