Gates, Crowley agree to keep talking
The two men at the center of the national debate over the disorderly conduct arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley had their moment at the White House and agreed to keep talking.
Crowley said no one apologized: “We agreed to look forward rather than backward.” He said Gates “brings a lot to the table.”
Gates, in a posting on the Root.com web site, said it is important that he and Sgt. Crowley continue to talk.
“Let me say that I thank God that I live in a country in which police officers put their lives at risk to protect us every day, and, more than ever, I’ve come to understand and appreciate their daily sacrifices on our behalf. I’m also grateful that we live in a country where freedom of speech is a sacrosanct value and I hope that one day we can get to know each other better, as we began to do at the White House this afternoon over beers with President Obama,” Gates said.
He noted that the “national conversation over the past week about my arrest has been rowdy, not to say tumultuous and unruly. But we’ve learned that we can have our differences without demonizing one another. There’s reason to hope that many people have emerged with greater sympathy for the daily perils of policing, on the one hand, and for the genuine fears about racial profiling, on the other hand.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
Jean is projects editor at the Post-Dispatch. She is a member of Bridges Across Racial Polarization, a group devoted to creating friendships and fostering communication among racial and cultural groups in the community. After growing up in a small town in Kansas, she lived in Kansas City and Wilmington, Del., before moving to St. Louis in 2004. She and her husband, Dan Wiggs, live in University City. 
If they can Agree to Disagree, there would be good money in it for both of them if they hit the lecture circuit as a team. Timothy Leary and G. Gordon Liddy made easy money that way.
If this had been a black cop arresting a white home owner, with everything else being the same, would it be a news story? And don’t tell me that couldn’t happen!
One perpetual mythical assumption I see in the U.S. is that by talking about race and the politics of race, we somehow come closer to healing our race-based differences. Says who?
This story is about a stupid, angry homeowner, a stupid over-reacting cop, and a stupid arrogant fool who somehow became President. Can we have some stories about smart people once in awhile?
Crowley needs to politely back away from this maniac, as his only intention is to vilify and make Crowley and all police seem like Gestapo. This is such a waste of reporting and a hideous contrived racially motivated plan to push the hate to the next level and call it white against black racism. The issue should have died after (actually before) the beers were completed.
Oh, and also, let’s pretend we do not have combatants involved in protecting us, at war. We do not have time for this negative “hate mongering” by black racists that is obviously being directed by the oval office.
Every step and action the arresting officers took after identifying the actual owner, if all that the news reports and Gates’ attorney alleges is true, was a clear is the paramount issue, even if Dr. Gates was handcuffed and arrested by a Black police officer.
So now, the police report and 9-1-1 audio tapes don’t match. Sadly, too many who blog here (including one lawyer) assume that the police version of events (or even Mr. Gate’s statements and actions) is precisely what happened and was said by all parties (and now the 9-1-1- audio tapes of a hearsay witness stating “I don’t know what’s happening …” — contradicting key parts of the police report). I can’t simplify or emphasize enough the importance of knowing and enforcing individual citizen protections under the Bill of Rights.
Pressing the easy button to obtain an arrest, and hyping circumstances in a report to justify an arrest and establish a police record — which will be forever referenced if Mr. Gates has future police encounters —
******Excerpts above of Dennis Moore, Publisher, POTUSworld as he commented in the “comments section” of TheRoot.com.
Now the part where Race comes into play is the fact that Police Officers
violate African Americans Civil Rights more so than any other group in this country.
The violation of the “Civil Rights” of anyone should be unacceptable to everyone. It is so strange and sick hearted how the very White people here can scream about their “Civil Right” to hold firearms but can ignore “Civil Rights” where they apply to African Americans. This shows hypocrisy and the schizophrenic behavior of many in the U.S. or is it just plain racist. Why don’t some of you here tell us what it is?
D Walker, I of course agree that the violation of anyone’s rights is totally wrong. Funny, then, your stance on abortion…
As I have said in one of the other 99 blogs we’ve had on this one incident, I have no doubt both men have guilt in their actions that night. If there was ever two people in this world with a chip on their shoulder, I bet it would be a Harvard professor and a police officer. Yes, that is a generalization, but you would be hard pressed to disagree with it I bet. Both these guys got caught up in the heat of the moment.
My question is why so many people want to take one side or the other. Common sense and logic suggest they both acted like knuckleheads that night…
Tim,
You are correct concerning bad behavior on both parts, however, bad behavior does not justify the violation of one’s “civil rights” by arrest. Such violations have harmful consequences and damages for the one arrested that cannot ever be erased. Such behavior SHOULD NOT and MUST NOT go ignored or unpunished.
This happens to poor people and Black people all too often. It MUST STOP.
I am not even going to address the abortion issue here, it is not the subject and I think that you and I should just agree to disagree about that entire issue because I look at abortions as totally a spiritual issue and not as a legal one.