Police react to Obama's comment from press conference

Cambridge Cop's Lawyer: Obama was 'Dead Wrong' on Gates
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/stor ... 681&page=1


The Cambridge, Mass., police officer who arrested Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the officer's union are slamming President Obama for saying they reacted "stupidly" to the incident at Gates' house last week, as the White House defended the president's remarks.

Members react to Obama's remarks that cop acted "stupidly" in Gates incident.Obama "was dead wrong to malign this police officer specifically and the department in general," Alan McDonald, the lawyer for the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, told ABC News today.

Sgt. James Crowley, who arrested Gates for disorderly conduct, also chimed in today, saying Obama's characterization was "way off base. ... I acted appropriately," Crowley told WBZ Radio in Boston Thursday.

Sgt. Tom Fleming, director of the Lowell Police Academy, told ABC News that Crowley has been teaching a class to cops on racial profiling at the academy for the last five years.

I agree with Obama...but he is only going to get himself in trouble sticking his nose into stories like this.

Even the cop's version of events doesn't indicate the guy did anything besides yelling. Clearly the guy was being an a-hole and saying inappropriate things, but he was on his own property and he wasn't threatening anyone.

Cop might have been off in what he did but the President really should stay out of things like this. Its really not his place to remark on this.

The cop responded to a call two black males were trying to force a door. When they arrive Gates is already in the house. Cop asks him for ID to verify it is his house (SOP), Gates goes into racist mode and refuses and begins to start the problems. The Sgt., who taught in the police academy about racial profiling, I'm sure, recognized he was being baited. It wouldn't surprise me if he purposely keyed his Mic so the conversation was recorded. I hope the Police Department releases the radio transmissions and prove how much of an ass this Gates was. After Gates finally produced ID the Sgt asked Gate to step outside so they could make sure the house was secure and there wasn't a perp in it (SOP). Of course Gates refused and make comments about the Sgt's mother among others.

Is this how a Harvard Professor should be acting? Maybe for a self entitled pompous ass who is looking for the publicity. This ass caused his own problems. I wouldn't have put up with his crap either.

How long before Rev Al is all over the place? This is right up his alley.

This is similar to a cop pulling over a car and asking the driver "do you know why I pulled you over" and the answer is "because I'm black. The cop answers "no, I couldn't even see who was driving because you passed me at 90 mph". It is automatically a race thing.

When I worked the South Bronx I was called "White Devil" and my partner and Uncle Tom because he worked with me before we even opened our mouths. It happen so many times it was a joke. But of course that's not racist.

How come some one who joins the NAACP isn't racist but if I was to join a group which promoted my race, I am a racist?

Obama was an ass to make a comment. All he needed to say was he didn't know the whole story so he won't comment and wish his friend well. He is going to lose a lot on this.

I am so tired of these racists, like Rev Al getting away with all this.

Here is the police report http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/ima...3/0498.001.pdf

Copy of the police report

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/ye ... ates2.html

As for the President, talk about putting his foot in his mouth, you never make a statement like that unless you have all the facts, & even then, you do not make such a strong statement......

Yep, here goes Rev Al
http://gothamist.com/2009/07/22/sharpto ... harvar.php

Obama crashed today's White House briefing to talk about it...

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (BNO NEWS) -- President Obama made a surprise appearance during the daily press briefing by Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in the James S. Brady Briefing Room of the White House on Friday afternoon. His complete remarks can be found below.

OBAMA: Hey, it's a cameo appearance. Sit down, sit down. I need to help Gibbs out a little bit here.

REPORTER: Are you the new press secretary?

PRESIDENT OBAMA: If you got to do a job, do it yourself. (Laughter.)

I wanted to address you guys directly because over the last day and a half obviously there's been all sorts of controversy around the incident that happened in Cambridge with Professor Gates and the police department there.

I actually just had a conversation with Sergeant Jim Crowley, the officer involved. And I have to tell you that as I said yesterday, my impression of him was that he was a outstanding police officer and a good man, and that was confirmed in the phone conversation -- and I told him that.

And because this has been ratcheting up -- and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up -- I want to make clear that in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sergeant Crowley specifically -- and I could have calibrated those words differently. And I told this to Sergeant Crowley.

I continue to believe, based on what I have heard, that there was an overreaction in pulling Professor Gates out of his home to the station. I also continue to believe, based on what I heard, that Professor Gates probably overreacted as well. My sense is you've got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved and the way they would have liked it to be resolved.

The fact that it has garnered so much attention I think is a testimony to the fact that these are issues that are still very sensitive here in America. So to the extent that my choice of words didn't illuminate, but rather contributed to more media frenzy, I think that was unfortunate.

What I'd like to do then I make sure that everybody steps back for a moment, recognizes that these are two decent people, not extrapolate too much from the facts -- but as I said at the press conference, be mindful of the fact that because of our history, because of the difficulties of the past, you know, African Americans are sensitive to these issues. And even when you've got a police officer who has a fine track record on racial sensitivity, interactions between police officers and the African American community can sometimes be fraught with misunderstanding.

My hope is, is that as a consequence of this event this ends up being what's called a "teachable moment," where all of us instead of pumping up the volume spend a little more time listening to each other and try to focus on how we can generally improve relations between police officers and minority communities, and that instead of flinging accusations we can all be a little more reflective in terms of what we can do to contribute to more unity. Lord knows we need it right now -- because over the last two days as we've discussed this issue, I don't know if you've noticed, but nobody has been paying much attention to health care. (Laughter.)

I will not use this time to spend more words on health care, although I can't guarantee that that will be true next week. I just wanted to emphasize that -- one last point I guess I would make. There are some who say that as President I shouldn't have stepped into this at all because it's a local issue. I have to tell you that that part of it I disagree with. The fact that this has become such a big issue I think is indicative of the fact that race is still a troubling aspect of our society. Whether I were black or white, I think that me commenting on this and hopefully contributing to constructive -- as opposed to negative -- understandings about the issue, is part of my portfolio.

So at the end of the conversation there was a discussion about -- my conversation with Sergeant Crowley, there was discussion about he and I and Professor Gates having a beer here in the White House. We don't know if that's scheduled yet -- (laughter) -- but we may put that together.

He also did say he wanted to find out if there was a way of getting the press off his lawn. (Laughter.) I informed him that I can't get the press off my lawn. (Laughter.) He pointed out that my lawn is bigger than his lawn. (Laughter.) But if anybody has any connections to the Boston press, as well as national press, Sergeant Crowley would be happy for you to stop trampling his grass.

All right. Thank you, guys."

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New reports that Obama has invited Gates and Sgt Crowley for a chat at the White House.

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instead of pumping up the volume spend a little more time listening to each other and try to focus on how we can generally improve relations between police officers and minority communities

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Something Sgt. Crowley has been doing and has taught for five years in the Police Academy. It wasn't he who jumped to a racist stance but was Gates who upon seeing a white officer began making derogatory comments. I call for Professor Gates to resign from his position at Harvard. They would have (and have) called for Crowley's job, why isn't it the other way around? Because only whites can be racists...