What should have happened first in Cambridge happened instead at the White House.
President Obama, whose words were taken out of context and infused with a life of their own, apologized today for his statements regarding an incident between Sgt. James Crowley and Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In that July 16 incident, Crowley came to the professor's Cambridge, Mass. home to investigate a report of burglary.
The president’s remarks at a news conference earlier this week should have been viewed on the periphery, but a media-crowded world that specializes in sound bytes and incremental coverage made Obama’s words center stage, distracting from the knottier, persistent issues of race and law enforcement...and not just those in Cambridge.
While Crowley and the Cambridge Police Department so far have found it unnecessary to apologize to Gates for how he was treated in his home, the president did find it necessary to respond to the police and cleared the air on his end. Obama offered a mea culpa to the Cambridge police after they expressed how offended they were by the president's remarks.
What's wrong with this picture?
Like the president, I wasn’t on Gates’ porch the night of July 16. Hopefully, the forthcoming investigation will offer more details. Nevertheless, regardless of how Crowley may state that an angry Gates “provoked” the incident, Crowley was there to uphold the laws of Cambridge. That’s it. Once he learned that no burglary had occurred, that Gates was trying to enter his own house, Crowley should have left.
As an officer who was trained in diversity, wouldn't Crowley have known about Robert C. Maynard's famous "fault lines" and how gender, race, geography, generation and class play a role in effective human engagement? Wouldn't Crowley have known the tense history between police and African Americans and been taught to avoid mistakes other officers have made? Finally, wouldn't Crowley understand that true authority is best translated by taking the high road because an impasse (or a violent encounter) is never the end-goal?
By making an immediate and courteous apology to a citizen, Crowley would have deftly exposed Gates' alleged belligerence, if that behavior actually occurred. He would have quickly diffused a heated moment and his even-tempered response would have won the admiration of countless blacks who know too well how it feels to be treated unjustly by a small-minded officer.
Crowley also would have set a gold standard for caring and thoughtful police law enforcement.
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