In a highly charged press conference, officials from Massachusetts police unions and other police associations expressed their unqualified support for Sgt. Crowley and stated that it is President Obama and Governor Deval Patrick who should apologize.
"[President Obama's] remarks were obviously misdirected but made it worse yet by suggesting somehow this case should remind us of a history of racial abuse by law enforcement," Dennis O'Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, said at a news conference.
"Whatever may be the history, we deeply resent the implications and reject any suggestion that in this case or any other case that they've allowed a person's race to direct their activities."
The officials stressed that both President Obama and Governor Patrick admitted that they did not have all the facts. Also noted was the President's bias in favor of his friend Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates. Police officials said that there was nothing "stupid" about what happened. Officials explicitly rejected Obama's suggestion that the arrest of Professor Gates was a racist incident.
Sgt. James Crowley is considering filing a defamation of character or libel lawsuit in response to the charges of racism and "rogue cop" leveled at him by Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates.
ABC News reports that the "White House said . . that President Obama 'regrets' the furor his remarks on the arrest of his friend Henry Louis Gates Jr. have caused. . . "
Police are considering releasing the police tapes which include "the 911 call reporting a break-in at Gates’ home and radio transmissions by the cop who busted him July 16 for disorderly conduct."
Mass. police unions ask Obama for apology: A multiracial group of police officers on Friday stood with the white officer who arrested a prominent black Harvard scholar and asked President Barack Obama and Gov. Deval Patrick to apologize for comments the union leaders called insulting.
White House: Obama Done Talking About Gates Case
Post Racial Politics Obama Louis Gates Deval Patrick Race, Class, Gender Cambridge Police News
