Black, White Cambridge Cops Back Officer

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The white police sergeant accused of racial profiling after he arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his home was hand-picked by a black police commissioner to teach recruits about avoiding racial profiling.

Friends and fellow officers - black and white - say Sgt. James Crowley is a principled police officer and family man who is being unfairly described as racist.

The only other Cambridge police officer who was inside Gates' home during his arrest says he and Crowley "followed protocols."

Patrolman Carlos Figueroa says he and Crowley needed to be sure everyone was in the house legally. He said that's why Crowley asked Gates for his identification.

Figueroa said Gates shouted "No, I will not!" He also says Gates was shouting at Crowley, calling him a racist and saying, "This is what happens to black men in America!"

Figueroa told The Associated Press on Friday that he and Crowley did what they were supposed to do.

"If people are looking for a guy who's abusive or arrogant, they got the wrong guy," said Andy Meyer, of Natick, who has vacationed with Crowley, coached youth sports with him and is his teammate on a men's softball team. "This is not a racist, rogue cop. This is a fine, upstanding man. And if every cop in the world were like him, it would be a better place."

Gates accused the 11-year department veteran of being an unyielding, race-baiting authoritarian after Crowley arrested and charged him with disorderly conduct last week.

Crowley confronted Gates in his home after a woman passing by summoned police for a possible burglary. The sergeant said he arrested Gates after the scholar repeatedly accused him of racism and made derogatory remarks about his mother, allegations the professor challenges. Gates has labeled Crowley a "rogue cop," demanded an apology and said he may sue the police department.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama elevated the dispute, when he said Cambridge Police "acted stupidly" during the encounter.

Mr. Obama stepped back on Thursday, telling ABC News, "From what I can tell, the sergeant who was involved is an outstanding police officer, but my suspicion is probably that it would have been better if cooler heads had prevailed."

Crowley didn't immediately return a phone message left by The Associated Press on Thursday.

He has said he has no reason to apologize and, on Thursday, told a radio station Mr. Obama went too far.

"I support the president of the United States 110 percent," he told WBZ-AM. "I think he was way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts, as he himself stated before he made that comment."

The sergeant added: "I guess a friend of mine would support my position, too."

Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas, in his first public comments on the arrest, said Thursday that Crowley was a decorated officer who followed procedure. The department is putting together an independent panel to review the arrest, but Haas said he did not think the whole story had been told.

"Sgt. Crowley is a stellar member of this department. I rely on his judgment every day. ... I don't consider him a rogue cop in any way," Haas said. "I think he basically did the best in the situation that was presented to him."

But Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, once the top civil rights official in the Clinton administration and now, like Mr. Obama, the first black to hold his job, labeled the arrest "every black man's nightmare."

The governor told reporters: "You ought to be able to raise your voice in your own house without risk of arrest."

And Gates, daughter, Elizabeth, told CBS' "The Early Show" Friday, "I think he needs to maybe extend his sensitivity training," and stressed the importance of the officer sitting down with her father.

Those who know the 42-year-old Crowley say he is calm, reliable and committed to everyday interests like playing softball and coaching his children's youth teams.

"He's a guy that you hope shows up for the game because he adds some levity. He's a team guy and he hangs out after the game," said Joe Ranieri, who plays softball with Crowley in suburban Natick.

Dan Keefe, a town parks official who knows Crowley from his work coaching youth swim, softball, basketball and baseball teams, said: "I would give him my daughter to coach in a blink of an eye, and I can't say any stronger opinion than that."

Crowley grew up in Cambridge's Fresh Pond neighborhood and attended the city's racially diverse public schools, including Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School. His brothers Jack and Joseph also work for the police department. His third sibling, Daniel, is a Middlesex County deputy sheriff.

Now married with three children of his own, Crowley lives about 15 miles from the city where he works.

He joined the Cambridge Police Department about 11 years ago and oversees the evidence room, records unit and paid police details.

For five of the past six years, Crowley also has volunteered alongside a black colleague in teaching 60 cadets per year about how to avoid targeting suspects merely because of their race, and how to respond to an array of scenarios they might encounter on the beat. Thomas Fleming, director of the Lowell Police Academy, said Crowley was asked by former police Lowell Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, to be an instructor.

"I have nothing but the highest respect for him as a police officer. He is very professional and he is a good role model for the young recruits in the police academy," Fleming said.

David Holway, president of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, lives in Cambridge, had a brother on the force there and said Crowley is from a "tremendous family."

"Everybody in the community loves this guy. All his peers love him," Holway said. "Everyone speaks highly of him."

Crowley's encounter with Gates was not his first with a high-profile black man, although on the prior occasion he was lauded for his response.

He was a campus cop at Brandeis University in suburban Waltham when was summoned to the school gymnasium in July 1993 after Boston Celtics player Reggie Lewis collapsed of an apparent heart attack. Crowley, also a trained emergency medical technician, not only pumped the local legend's chest, but put his mouth to Lewis' own and attempted to breathe life back into the fallen athlete.

"Looking back on it, he was probably already gone," Crowley said Thursday during an interview with WEEI-AM in Boston. "But I did to him what I would do to anything else in that situation."

Related Coverage:

Cambridge Cops Want Obama Apology

White House: No More To Say On Gates


He said, He said Saga in Cambridge

Gates' Daughter Calls Crowley Uncooperative

Cambridge Cops Back Crowley

White House: Obama Didn't Call Officer Stupid

Prof. Gates, Cambridge and Racial Politics

Cop Who Cuffed Gates Tried to Save NBA Pro

Cambridge Cop: Gates' Arrest by the Book

Gates Devastated by Arrest, Says Daughter

Obama: Cops Acted "Stupidly" in Professor's Arrest

Black Professor Wants Apology over Arrest

Was Professor's Arrest 'Racial Profiling'?

Gates Speaks out about His Arrest

Charges Against Harvard Scholar Dropped

Profiling Charge In Black Scholar's Arrest

[RicardoAleman1977]

I was arrested for breaking into my home because I'm mexican!
Professor Gates! Please read my story and help! I'm a victim too!
http://www.dailycomedy.com/joke/19325

[AlxHailtn]

You are too racist to deal with FACT that Barack Obama is ELECTED President of the United States of America. And it is 100 percent because of his RACE. You and that PIG cop are cut from same cloth, low-bred and low-class.

[AlxHailtn]

Cop was typical, power hungry thug. Black cop was typical, UNCLE TOM, how how boss, rent-a-negro.

[AlxHailtn]

Cop is typical racist, power hungry crud. Black cop is typical, uncle TOM, how high boss, rent-a-negro.

[Illuminated1]

This is not about anything except power.
The cops like to think they run the neighborhood.
They are wrong, the residents run the neighborhood,
the cops are only there to protect and serve, nothing less, nothing more.

Breakin in reported by neighbor saying 2 blacks with backpacks busting door down.
Police arrive, inside the house Gates calls management company.
Police get Identification twice from Gates, who wants id's himself.
Police refuse and order him outside.
He refuses, starts getting angry and cursing officer while inside home.
They get to the front door, officer arrests Gates for disorderly conduct.

Another Police officer inside the house seemed to avoid the issue.
Police officer Figuroa states they followed protocol, "they had to be sure nobody else was in there illegally."

This is a question, Why did they have to be sure nobody else was in the house when it was perfectly explained that the door was jammed?
I say that is a poor reason since the police were already inside the house.
Weather or not the police followed protocol, they were wrong.
Protocol must be modified as does the attitude of the police force there in general.

[christiansin]

While I understand Professor Gates' passionate reaction to having police acting suspicious of him and storming into his house, I would expect someone of Professor Gates knowledge and position to conduct themselves in a bit more dignified and level headed manner. He should be well aware of the necessary channels and the appropriate process for effectively correcting improper police conduct. To follow the police out the door as they are leaving his house while behaving in a manner the police felt worthy of an arrest for disorderly conduct in public seems a bit out of line to me and entirely counter productive.

With the position and influence Professor Gates has, he of all people should be capable of avoiding being dragged down to the level of police that he believes are conducting themselves in an improper manner and violating his rights. I'm sure this situation can be explained as much by competing egos as it can be explained by racial profiling.

Professor Gates, you should show that you are the bigger man and set a good example for all of us in resolving your dispute with the Cambridge PD. You have done so much for which you are respected and like that your public image can only be helped by making peace with Sargent Crowley.

[JusticeInAmerica]

I was at the Brandeis University gym on July 27th 1993. I saw EMS techs performing CPR - NO COPS AT ALL were doing this.

[DavidFromWI]

WHEN DID THE LEFT STOP STICKING UP FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS UNION MEMBER AVERAGE JOE AND PROTECT THE RICH WELL CONNECTED INSTEAD? Its so tragic that HERR PROFESSOR was arrested for what amounts to less of a crime than a parking ticket at Wally World. OH GOD that poor poor well connected, rich, I am friends with the most powerful man in the world professor. Sad thing is there are many people that are suffering at the hand of racism WHITE AND BLACK and this ELITIST SLOB thinks that HIS DOESN'T STINK? What do you suppose he wanted the poor slubs badge number and name for to send him a thank you card. I bet you dollars to doughnuts (no pun intended) it was to give to make sure this cop wised he never bothered such a superior man of letters. ABOUT RACE???? its about a professor that had to save face because his was plastered on the evening news and we CANT HAVE THAT!!!!!!We call the police heroes when they die in 9/11 or at a holocaust museum AS WE SHOULD but go agaist a well connected RICH POWERFUL CAN CALL CNN OR ABC OR CBS BECAUSE THEY KNOW ME or buddy Obama and some how its seen as the police officer was ABUSING HIS POWER??????OH sure I bet Gates wants to see if he can make this working stiffs job any more a nightmare. I guess the police and fire men are heroes until they go after a professor. IT NEVER WAS ABOUT THE PROFESSORS RACE BTWWhat VP of the networks did he KNOW and CALL to facilitate the OUTRAGE and HEADLINES.PIGS and SNOBS and I don't mean the police!!!!!!! I have sympathy for this cop and as much for every black man, woman and child that thinks they voted for change or that GATES has their best interest at heart.This is the wost case REAL ABUSE OF POWER in a generation and people are still rooting for the POWER?I would stand side by side with any man black or white but I have l ZERO respect for a man who claims to fight for the middle class but has such a knee jerk reaction AGAINST A POLICE OFFICER TO STICK UP FOR HIS IVY LEAGUE FRIEND. LEFT FOR THE LITTLE GUY? HA HA HA FRICKING HA. I want to vomit thinking about it.

[truth_police]

A Disorderly Conduct offense can NOT be applied to a person who is in his own home (Disorderly Conduct: "Conduct that is likely to lead to a disturbance of the PUBLIC peace or that offends PUBLIC decency"). The cop missed this decisive legal point entirely. Fortunately, the Prosecutor did NOT miss it and Nolle Prossed it. In the third from last paragraph in the cop's complaint narrative the arresting officer states that while inside Gates' home he told Gates he "would speak with him [Gates] outside" and the cop proceeds to explain WHY the officer wanted to speak to Gates "outside" rather than inside the house. Gates' conduct outside his home on his front porch, was identical to his conduct inside his home. This conclusively demonstrates the cop did NOT believe that Gates' conduct inside his home was "disorderly" on its face, otherwise, why would the officer issue a directive that would move that conduct outside, thereby CREATING a "public" disturbance which would never have occurred and would never have been "PUBLIC" if Gates had NOT followed the officer's directive and had remained inside his home. There are only 2 possibilities. Either the officer, in bad faith, set Gates up for a sucker-punch arrest that he knew he could NOT make if Gates stayed inside his home (Entrapment). Or, the officer never believed Gates' conduct (inside or outside his home) constituted a public disturbance. Either way, this was a bad, unjustifiable arrest that does not pass the smell test. Entrapment does NOT constitute a valid lawful basis for an arrest.

[truth_police]

Any police official who claims that the Gates situation could not be quelled without an arrest, given the known facts, is either incompetent or is lying through his teeth, and should NOT be on any police force. Typically, they are the ones who arrogantly and unjustifiably refuse to provide their name and badge number when citizens request it.