Sgt. James Crowley, Photo by Christopher Evans
The fallout from the arrest of Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. continues. Sgt. James Crowley, the police officer who arrested Gates, has said that he isn't a racist and he will not apologize to Mr. Gates for his actions, which can be considered as racial profiling to many. There's an interesting revelation about Mr. Crowley that has come to light. He was a campus police at Brandeis University when Reggie Lewis suffered a fatal attack July 27, 1993, during an off-season practice there. Did he do enough to save Lewis, a black man then and did he do enough to treat Mr. Gates with dignity and respect now? He claimed, during an interview with the Boston Herald, that he cried many nights when questioned about "whether he had done enough to save the black athlete." “Some people were saying ‘There’s the guy who killed Reggie Lewis’ afterward. I was broken-hearted. I cried for many nights,” he said.
The bottom line is that once Crowley realized that Mr. Gates, 58, was not a burglar, then he could have easily just left the scene and went on his business. He owes Mr. Gates an apology and since he figured so prominently in another incident, albeit a tragic one, involving another black man, his police record is worth a second and closer look. Crowley says he harbors no “ill feelings toward the professor,” but added that “I just have nothing to apologize for,” he said. “It will never happen.” Really? It's really unfortunate that he feels this way and isn't man enough to admit that mistakes were made in this case.
Gates, who upon his arrest allegedly shouted to a gathering crowd on Ware Street, “This is what happens to black men in America!” believes he was targeted by Crowley - whom he called a “rogue” cop - because of his race. I wouldn't say it started out as a deliberate act by Crowley because he was responding to a call, but it certainly ended that way. It has proven that even though blacks have made significant gains in America, we are still marginalized and are discriminated against in many instances. So many black men -- decent, law-abiding, hardworking, family-oriented and educated -- have been the victims of exactly what happened to Professor Gates. I am hopeful that this will bring the issue front and center for debate and change.
Crowley, an 11-year veteran of the force, oversees the evidence room, paid details and records unit. He also coaches youth basketball, baseball and softball. I seem to recall that there were many members of the Ku Klux Klan who went to church regularly, were gainfully employed and were movers and shakers in their communities, but they were still racists. I am not saying that Mr. Crowley is a racist, but it seems a little weird that he has factored so prominently in two seemingly racist cases involving two prominent black men.
Here's my problem with President Obama's response -- he should not have said that the "Cambridge police acted stupidly," without knowing the facts. What he did was take the side of Mr. Gates without really knowing all the facts in this case. I am not saying that there are no incidents of racial profiling in this country or that this wasn't such an occurrence. Each black male or Latino has a story to tell about being stopped by a cop at some point in their lives, but President Obama could have declined to point fingers at the police department. Yes, he could have stated that racial profiling continues to be a problem in the United States, but he could have avoided direct criticism of the officer(s) involved. This is becoming a big distraction for President Obama and it really didn't have to end up this way.
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