Cop in Gates arrest says he will not apologize

The Cambridge police officer at the center of the controversy over the arrest of a black Harvard professor says he will not apologize for the incident, the Boston media report.

Henry Louis Gates Jr., was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct at his home near Harvard last week after a neighbor called in a report of a possible break-in. Gates, who was returning from a trip abroad, and his driver, had been trying to force open a front door.

The professor eventually got inside, by using a back door, when police arrived. The police report indicates that a heated exchange occurred although Gates showed his Harvard ID police allege that Gates initially refused to identify himself. In any case, Gates was handcuffed and arrested, although charges were later dropped.

Gates, 58, who charges that the arrest was racially motivated, has demanded that the police officer, Sgt. James Crowley, apologize for the incident. USA TODAY reports that the incident has ignited a long-simmering national debate over racial profiling.

Q1X00080_9 Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Boston Herald, says he harbors no “ill feelings toward the professor” but will not apologize.

“I just have nothing to apologize for,” he tells the Herald. “It will never happen.”

The Boston Globe reports that Crowley says Gates' arrest was not racially motivated. "I am not a racist," The Globe quotes the officer as saying.

The paper says Crowley had no comment to President Obama's statement last night that the policeman acted "stupidly" in arresting Gates in his own home.

The Globe also reports that a Cambridge police union expressed "full and unqualified support" for Crowley.

Update at 10:20 a.m. ET: Crowley gives a long interview this morning with WEEI, a Boston sport radio station, in which he offers more details about the incident.

Click here to listen to the entire interview.

He tells The Dennis & Callahan Morning Show that Gates refused to answer whether there was someone in the house with him. He also says he asked Gates to step outside for the officer's "own safety."

Crowley tells WEEI that Gates was very upset from the beginning. "It's not just what he said, but how he said it. It was somewhat peculiar."

The police officer says he asked Gates for a driver's license even after seeing his Harvard ID because the university document does not include an address, which would have verified that Gates was, in fact, in his own home.

Crowley says that Gates followed him outside and continued to speak loudly and that the officer twice warned him about possible arrest, the second time while holding a pair of handcuffs.

He tells WEEI that arresting Gates was "something I really didn't want to do."

As for President Obama's comments on the incident, Crowley says it is "disappointing that he waded into what should be a local issue."

Update at 10:52 a.m. ET: The Boston Globe initially offered a link on Monday to the original Cambridge police report, however it was only up for a short time. Click here to view the report. This link has been provided by two conservative websites, the media watchdog group called NewsBusters and View from the Right.

Update at 11:53 a.m. ET: The AP reports that Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, who is black, said he was troubled and upset over the incident. Cambridge Mayor Denise Simmons, who also is black, has said she spoke with Gates and apologized on behalf of the city, the AP reports. An earlier statement from the city called the incident "regrettable and unfortunate."

Update at 12:10 p.m. ET: At one point in the interview with WEEI, Crowley apologizes for not knowing before he got the professor's ID that he was an eminent scholar.

Here is how Crowley put it:

There are so many things in this incident that keep me scratching my head wondering. I apologize, I was not aware who professor Gates was. And when I read the name off the card, it wasn't like I said, 'Oh, wow, that's professor Gates.' I'm still just amazed that somebody of his level of intelligence could stoop to such a level and berate me, accuse me of being a racist, of racial profiling, and speaking about my mother. It's just beyond words.

Update at 12:16 p.m. ET: For more on the White House angle on the story, click here for The Oval.

Update at 12:43 p.m. ET: White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, responding to questions by reporters on Obama's statement, says, "Let me be clear, he was not calling the officer stupid. But at a certain point the situation (in Gates' house) got out of hand." Gibbs says "cooler heads" should have prevailed once it was clear this was not a break-in.

Update at 12:49 p.m. ET: Gibbs says Obama did not regret saying that he thought the Cambridge police had "acted stupidly" but wanted to clarify that he was not calling the arresting officer stupid.
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Update at 4:06 p.m. ET: The Cambridge Police Department will hold a news conference at 5 p.m. ET to talk about the arrest of Gates.

The AP is reporting that the arresting officer is an expert at racial profiling, which he has taught at the police academy for five years. The academy director, Thomas Fleming, says the course teaches about different cultures that officers could encounter in their community "and how you don't want to single people out because of their ethnic background or the culture they come from."

Comedian Bill Cosby reacted to Obama's remark last night, initially saying he was "shocked" but later backing off a bit, The Christian Science Monitor writes.

“I’ve heard about five different reports [on the details of the arrest],” Cosby said on Boston’s WZLX. “If I’m the president of the United States, I don’t care how much pressure people want to put on it about race, I’m keeping my mouth shut. I was shocked to hear the president making this kind of statement.”

Here's what he said later, on Boston’s FOX 25 TV:

“People who have not been there, people who don’t know are beginning to have their own personal feelings, but they weren’t there,” Cosby said.

“Does this include the president?” the FOX reporter asked.

“It includes everybody,” Cosby said. “[But] I would have to take into consideration that he lived in Cambridge for some time so he may know more than he’s saying about situations of that sort.”

Update at 5:53 p.m. ET: In his first statement since the arrest, Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas just said that his department is "deeply pained" by the president's statement that his officers "acted stupidly." He said at a news conference that Crowley's actions were not motivated by racism.