Obama calls the white policeman who arrested Gates

WASHINGTON – Trying to tamp down an uproar over race, President Barack Obama said Friday he used an unfortunate choice of words in commenting on the arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and could have "calibrated those words differently."

The president said he had telephoned the white policeman who arrested Gates, and he said the conversation confirmed his belief that the officer was a good man and an outstanding officer.

The president caused a stir when he said at a prime-time news conference earlier this week that Cambridge, Mass., police had "acted stupidly" by arresting Gates, a Harvard scholar and friend of the president's, for disorderly conduct.

On Friday, Obama made an impromptu appearance at the daily White House briefing in an effort to contain the controversy. He said he continued to believe that both the officer, Sgt. James Crowley, and Gates had overreacted during the incident, but the president also faulted his own comments.

 

As he said, it's a teaching moment.

 

Yea, it's a teaching moment in that he royally fucked up by shooting his mouth off before he knew shit. If anyone is dividing people now, it's Obama.

 

:smt095

 

I agree, if there is not a teleprompter in front of him, he is lost. He keeps making a bigger fool out of himself daily. This guy is the biggest bag of hot air i have seen. Funny how he can't just apologize, he must think he is to big for that. He probably think what he is doing now is gonna work, just like the stimulus package!:toimonster:

 

You have a picture of "Joe the plumber" on your desktop don't you?:smt043

 

Gee the last one made a mistake and got people killed and never stated an apology.

this one did the samething and he reconciled with the cop. something the other gentlemen would never do.

here is another question. when a race issue happened under the other president suchas the release of a police officer targeting blacks in Texas by trumping up false evidence to convict them of drug deals was never asked about the race problems in america during an address. why is President Obama having to answer these questions ?

 

And not to mention why Bush hasn't apologized to African Americans after the EPIC FAIL of Katrina.

 

It was not necessay for President Obama to apologize. The police DID act stupidly. He called the behvior stupid, not the cops.

 

Because you are a police officer after all right? You know all about police protocol? When an officer asks you for an ID, you fucking give it to him. We, as a society, give the police a certain amount of power to protect us. Him asking for an ID is not acting stupidly....randomly assuming that one is getting badgered because of race divides this country even more....Gates has nobody to blame but himself.

 

he did give him the ID. as a matter of fact he gave him 2 forms of ID's. the cop got mad because gates was mouthing off ( which is not against the law).

the 2 individuals were just 2 big babies getting thier egos bruised.

 

My son and ex-husband ARE police officers. Gates did give his ID PROVING it was his house, at that point the officer should have left.

 

Bullshit! He knew enough about the incident to formulate an opinion. He knows that the cops overreacted. As he stated, it was handled "stupidly".

You act just like an angry white male. Are you a white male???

The Kid Rasta

 

Another angry white male. Are we being invaded by the racist site amoebas???

The Kid Rasta

 

Amen. Regardless of anything that was said by Prof. Gates -- the cop should have bounced.

The Kid Rasta

 

the report said the officer WAS leaving, and gates PURSUED the guy, demanding the officer gave him his badge ID, which lead to the subsequent arrest.

 

...yes..which is why Obama is now playing cleanup...

even he admits to jumping the gun

 

I guess that I am skeptical of the Boston area police. Boston has a long history of racial injustice.

 

yeah i wanted to go to boston, to visit, but a coworker warned me about the racism around there...

I guess like any city, you have to know where to go and not go

to kid rasta - everyone who disagrees with you, other posters, or the topic at hand, is not a white guy from racist site...

it's called freedom of thought and ties in with individuality.

you should try it sometime...or maybe you'd rather have everyone agreeing on everything, like some sort of borg collective, out of star trek

 

Obama shouldnt have apologized grow some balls