The highly anticipated White House meeting of black Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates and white Cambridge, Massachusetts police Sergeant James Crowley occurred without either apologizing to the other over Gates’ racially charged arrest for disorderly conduct on July 16.

Moreover, there was no apology from President Obama who suggested the meeting and hosted it at a picnic table on the White House South Lawn. It was the President’s incredibly untimely remark that elevated the situation from a local dispute into a national – even international – uproar.  During a press conference dealing with his plan for a federal takeover of the nation’s health care system, Mr. Obama responded to a question about the confrontation between the policeman and the professor.  He said that he didn’t have all the facts, yet he followed that admission with “the police acted stupidly.”  If anyone acted stupidly during that nationally televised appearance, it was the president himself.

Professor Gates had been confronted at his own home by several policemen who were responding to a report that there was a break-in in progress at Gates’ home.  A passerby had seen Gates and the taxi driver who had just brought him from the airport forcing their way into the premises because of a stuck door. The alert passerby called 911. When the police arrived, they didn’t know what had occurred and Sgt. Crowley requested identification from the professor. The situation rapidly deteriorated with Gates making accusations about racial profiling and getting himself arrested and handcuffed for disorderly conduct. The charges were almost immediately dropped. But President Obama injected himself into the matter with his remarkably uncalled for condemnation of the police.

A photo of the incident shows the angered professor in handcuffs. But it also shows the presence of a black policeman named Leon Lashley, who has always insisted that Sgt. Crowley’s handling of the situation was entirely proper and would have been his way of handling it if he were the senior man on the scene.

The incident amounted to a misunderstanding between a veteran and highly respected policeman and a nationally-known Harvard academic. It would likely have blown over as it was properly resolved at the local level except for the intemperate remark by the President who has since stated that his remark should be “recalibrated.” That he harmed his own reputation can hardly be denied.

Aware of this and how it reflected on him, Mr. Obama arranged for the two men to come to the White House, join him in sipping a beer, and patch over their disagreement. The meeting was staged as though the issue was the confrontation between the two men at the Gates home in Massachusetts. Much of the reporting about the gathering, attended also by Vice President Biden, was about race relations and the bury-the-hatchet attitude of the two.

That’s the way President Obama wanted it. The issue would never have captured so much attention if Mr. Obama hadn’t poured gasoline on it. He now knows that he was completely out of order with his snap judgment about the police. His subsequent expression of regret for what he said wasn’t enough. So he had the two men come together in his presence as if he were the great conciliator. The truth is that he was the great inflamer. He now hopes that most Americans will look upon him as a calmer of racial animosities that he brought to an unnecessary boil. And that was the main purpose of the “beer summit.” 

Whether the President’s goal will be achieved in the minds of the American public remains to be seen.   

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (11)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

danwhitehead1 said:

	Pitiful It is pitiful, to say nothing of embarrassind, that a president of the United States of America would even get involved in such a thing. How low things have sunk (of course that trashy pig Clinton was even worse...thus far anyway).
	report abuse vote down vote up

July 31, 2009
Votes: +3

Lee Burral said:

	? Just curious. What % of your organization is black?
	report abuse vote down vote up

July 31, 2009
Votes: -3

scpg02 said:

	... "The incident amounted to a misunderstanding between a veteran and highly respected policeman and a nationally-known Harvard academic." No, the incident amounted to racial profiling by a nationally-known Harvard academic.
	report abuse vote down vote up

July 31, 2009 | url
Votes: +10

Lee Gonzales said:

Your color is wrong "Just curious. What % of your organization is black?" ---Lee Burral Isn't your statement a form of "profiling?" If an organization , an individual, a group or an entire community doesn't meet the color criteria then forget it according to the world of Lee Burral. Most people on this planet for one saw this situation for what it is- an opportunity for the president to pile on local police. The major news media played up the race card during the Rodney King incident and most of the media aren't non-white. The Rodney King incident was also blown all out of proportion by whites in the media to give local police a bad image. The MSM have an agenda and the target is the local police. Politicians regardless of color and rank also have an agenda and their target is the local police. Placing local police departments under control of the federal government is their goal. Therefore any incident, especially a confrontation between a white police officer and a black person, will get the MSM and agenda driven politicians into high gear. Let's take an incident like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the elderly lady who was brutalized by police. The MSM didn't raise a stink over a senior citizen being physically assaulted by police. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1Qx0cTze0M Did you?

report abuse vote down vote up

August 01, 2009
Votes: +3

Thomas Jackson said:

	Obama and Gates are the real RACISTS Frankly, this incident has a silver lining. European-Americans now clearly see what type of African-American racists they helped to elect. Hopefully, this is a WAKE UP call to European-Americans to not make the same mistake in the future.
	report abuse vote down vote up

August 01, 2009
Votes: +4

Lance said:

spokesman for the United States Constitution A local police issue in Cambridge, MA is exactly that, a local issue. The federal level of government has no say in the daily operations of our state and local police agencies. Just consider this as a baby's first step in the nationalization of local law enforcement. One of the very first tasks that are accomplished by an oppressive government once they are put into power is that they nationalize the police forces and then they use those forces to disarm the people.

report abuse vote down vote up

August 02, 2009
Votes: +2

us and them said:

	... The bright spot in all of this mess was the officer who remained professional and didn't stoop to the prez's and the prof's level. well done sgt crowley
	report abuse vote down vote up

August 02, 2009
Votes: +2

Bob in St. Louis said:

Meeting at the White House? Yes, Obama should have never gotten in the middle of it. I don't even know why a reporter would ask such a question of the president. Of course most of the media thinks this guy should mediate every minute detail of our lives. But a meeting at the White House. This incident amounted to was a man, regardless of his color, being arrested in his own house on his own property for a non-crime. As far as I'm concerned, the professor is a racist but not a criminal in this instance. The cop is probably a decent person, but our society has gotten to the point that we are losing the understanding of our property rights and cops don't understand it anymore either. Today, our homes are taken and sold to other private groups who give a better tax return to the government. We hear about smoking bans being forced by our governments on private businesses and we hardly flinch. If we keep standing quietly by while these usurpations continue, eventually cops wont need a warrant to enter your house and arrest you for disorderly conduct for criticizing the government. All for the public good, of course.

report abuse vote down vote up

August 02, 2009 | url
Votes: -1

pasichoe said:

	... Honestly, is why is the beer summit even worth talking about?
	report abuse vote down vote up

August 02, 2009
Votes: +0

Strom said:

	Beer Summit Yet another diversion. Keep an eye on the other hand.
	report abuse vote down vote up

August 02, 2009
Votes: +1

Floyd from Maine said:

	... The police did their proper duty,if they had did nothing and it had turned out that to be a breakin,then the Harvard dope would have realy howled long and hard,saying the white cops are rasists . If I had been in his place I would have been polite and showed my ID and thanked them for their work.The world is full of jerks is it not?
	report abuse vote down vote up

August 03, 2009
Votes: +1