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links for 2009-07-24

July 24, 2009 /
  • Black officer at Gates home during arrest said scholar acted strange, supports arrest
    A black police officer who was at Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s home when the black Harvard scholar was arrested says he fully supports how his white fellow officer handled the situation.

    Sgt. Leon Lashley says Gates was probably tired and surprised when Sgt. James Crowley demanded identification from him as officers investigated a report of a burglary. Lashley says Gates' reaction to Crowley was "a little bit stranger than it should have been."

    Asked if Gates should have been arrested, Lashley said supported Crowley "100 percent."

    Gates has said he was the victim of racial profiling.

    (tags: barack_obama)
  • President Obama walks back police criticism
    In an attempt to tamp down the escalating controversy over his comments on the Monday arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. by the Cambridge, Mass., Police Department, President Obama made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room and placed calls to both Gates and Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley, who arrested the Harvard professor.

    Taking the briefing-room podium just hours after Cambridge police union officials called on Obama to apologize for saying the officers involved in the incident with Gates behaved "stupidly," Obama conceded that he erred in his "choice of words."

    (tags: barack_obama)
  • Gates Cop Not Ruling Out Defamation Suit – Case Heats Up as Police Organizations Criticize Obama for Jumping Into the Controversy
    The police sergeant who arrested Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. last week in his own home may be considering a defamation lawsuit against Gates who has implied his arrest was racially motivated.
    <p>Alan McDonald, who represents Sgt. James Crowley, said the veteran cop who teaches a <a href="http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/07/black-caucus-chair-obama-right-on-target-about-gates.html" target="external">racial profiling</a> class for rookie police officers has not ruled out filing a defamation of character or libel lawsuit.
    </p><p>
    "He is exploring all of his options,'' McDonald told ABC News.
    </p><p>
    Though charges were dropped, Gates has loudly asserted <a href="javascript:openPopup('http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8143760', 'popup', 1010, 700, 'status=1, resizable=1');">his arrest</a> was a result of racial profiling.
    (tags: barack_obama henry_gates)

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