CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The white police sergeant accused of racial profiling after he arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his home was handpicked 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 cop and family man who is being unfairly described as racist.
“If people are looking for a guy who’s abusive or arrogant, they got the wrong guy,” said Andy Meyer of Natick, Mass., 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.
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.”
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, questioned about the flap, stressed that Obama “was not calling the officer stupid.” He said Obama felt that “at a certain point the situation got far out of hand.” Gibbs said Obama has not spoken with Gates since the incident.
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 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.”
Married and the father of three, Crowley lives about 15 miles from the city where he works.
