A BLACK Harvard professor and the white police sergeant who arrested him two weeks ago have agreed to meet again following Thursday’s meeting over a beer at the White House with US president Barack Obama and vicepresident Joe Biden.
Mr Obama found himself in the centre of the dispute over whether Sgt James Crowley was justified in arresting Prof Henry Louis Gates in the professor’s home when the president told a press conference the police had “acted stupidly”.
As Prof Gates accused the police of racial profiling and police groups rushed to Sgt Crowley’s defence, the president backed away from his comments on the incident and invited the two men for a beer. “I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart,” Mr Obama said after the 40-minute meeting.
“I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode.” Neither of the protagonists apologised for their behaviour during last month’s arrest, when the police officer says the professor was abusive and Prof Gates claims he simply upset Sgt Crowley because he was a black man standing up for his rights.
The police officer, who came to Prof Gates’s home in response to a neighbour’s report of a break-in, handcuffed the professor and took him to a local police station but no charges were made.
Sgt Crowley described the conversation over beer at the White House as cordial and said he and Prof Gates would meet again in the near future.
“We agreed to move forward,” Sgt Crowley told reporters.
“I think what you had today was two gentlemen agreeing to disagree on a particular issue. I don’t think that we spent too much time dwelling on the past. We spent a lot of time discussing the future.”
Sgt Crowley, who was joined at his post-beer press conference by a lawyer and a police union representative, said Mr Obama had played only a minor role in the conversation.
“He provided the beer. He contributed in a small part,” Sgt Crowley said. “He really wanted to bring two people together to try to solve not only a local issue in Cambridge but also what has become a national issue.”
Prof Gates, who is considering making a television documentary about racial profiling inspired by his arrest, said he hoped the incident would serve as an opportunity for education rather than recrimination.
He said it was now up to himself and Sgt Crowley, rather than Mr Obama, to increase awareness of the dangers facing police officers and the fears that African-Americans have about racial profiling.
“It turns out that the president just might have a few other things on his plate as well,” Prof Gates added.