President Barack Obama held an press conference today to address the remarks that he made about the arrest of Dr. Henry Louis “Skip” Gates at his home in Cambridge, Mass. After suggesting that the police reacted “stupidly,” President Obama’s comment caused emotional reactions that were mostly divided along racial lines.
During the press conference, President Obama revealed that he had talked to Sgt. James Crowley on the telephone and considered him to be an outstanding officer. However, he holds firm to his opinion that the situation was handled poorly.
“I continue to believe, based on what I have heard, that there was an overreaction in pulling Professor Gates out of his home to the station,” President Obama said. “I also continue to believe, based on what I heard, that Professor Gates probably overreacted as well. My sense is you’ve got two good people in a circumstance in which neither of them were able to resolve the incident in the way that it should have been resolved and the way they would have liked it to be resolved.”
“My hope is that as a consequence of this event, this ends up being what’s called a ‘teachable moment,’ ” the president continued. “Where all of us — instead of pumping up the volume — spend a little more time listening to each other and try[ing] to focus on how we can generally improve relations between police officers and minority communities, and that instead of flinging accusations, we can all be a little more reflective in terms of what we can do to contribute to more unity.” –amir shaw
