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Officer in Gates Arrest Incident Teaches Academy Class on Racial Profiling

3:14 PM, Jul 23, 2009 • By MARY KATHARINE HAM
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He's taught it for five years, in tandem with a black officer, to good reviews from the academy head, and was appointed to the position by a black police chief:

Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley, the cop at the center of a firestorm over the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., has taught a racial profiling class at the Lowell Police Academy for five years.

His academy class, which he teaches with a black police officer, instructs about 60 police cadets per year who spend 12 hours in the classroom, said Lowell Police Academy Director Thomas Fleming.

"He's a very professional police officer and he's a good role model," Fleming said. "Former police commissioner Ronny Watson, who is a person of color, hand-picked Sgt. Crowley. ... I presume because he would be the most qualified and most professional. He's a very good instruction. He gets very high reviews by the students."

Meanwhile, Obama is "clarifying" his comments on the incident a bit:

"Let me be clear," Gibbs said. "He was not calling the officer stupid, okay? He was denoting that ... at a certain point the situation got far out of hand, and I think all sides understand that."

Terry Moran offered this from the President on Twitter:

"President told me 'cooler heads should have prevailed' in Gates arrest but refused take back word 'stupidly.'"

Obama's direct quote on Gates arrest: "You probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who's in his own home."

More by Mary Katharine Ham

"From what I can tell the sergeant who was involved is an outstanding police officer, but...better if cooler heads had prevailed."

 

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