WASHINGTON - President Obama said last night that police acted "stupidly" in the arrest of prominent black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Obama said he did not know all the facts about the arrest last week in Boston. Gates said he was arrested in his own home after showing identification to police who responded to a report of a possible burglary.
Gates said Sgt. James Crowley walked into his home without his permission and only arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment.
During his prime-time news conference yesterday, Obama said African Americans and Hispanics are still singled out for arrest disproportionately. The president, the first African American to hold the nation's highest office, said he was a testament to the progress minorities have made. But he said that Gates' arrest in his own home was a reminder that racism "still haunts us."
"I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "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, and that's just a fact."
Crowley insisted yesterday he would not apologize to Gates, who has demanded he do so.
Police said that Gates, 58, at first refused to provide identification and then accused the officer of racism.
Crowley said he was disappointed by the national debate triggered by the incident and insisted he followed proper procedures in arresting Gates last week in Cambridge on a charge of disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped Tuesday.