*UPDATE: Sgt Crowley, the cop who arrested Prof Gates, gives sensitivity training on racial profiling?! … Oops

Like virtually every other black person in America who has commented on this controversy, President Obama oozed racial indignation as he condemned the Cambridge police during a press conference last night, saying that they “acted stupidly” in arresting Gates.  The clear implication being that he too believes they racially profiled the Harvard professor.

But, based on a breaking report by the Associated Press, it’s the president and other blacks who appear to be engaging in (reverse) racial profiling. And boy did they target the wrong white cop:

The white police sergeant criticized by President Barack Obama for arresting black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his Massachusetts home is a police academy expert on racial profiling.

Cambridge Sgt. James Crowley has taught a class on racial profiling for five years at the Lowell Police Academy after being hand-picked for the job by former police Commissioner Ronny Watson, who is black, said Academy Director Thomas Fleming.

“I have nothing but the highest respect for him as a police officer. He is very professional and he is a good role model for the young recruits in the police academy,” Fleming told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The course, called “Racial Profiling,” 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,” Fleming said…

Crowley, 42, has maintained he did nothing wrong and has refused to apologize, as Gates has demanded.

Frankly, it is Crowley who should be demanding an apology — from Professor Gates and President Obama!  Because as incomprehensible as it might seem that the esteemed Gates engaged in disorderly conduct, it now seems even more incomprehensible that Crowley racially profiled him. 

Here’s what Crowley had to say:

Mister Gates was given plenty of opportunities to stop what he was doing. He didn’t. He acted very irrational he controlled the outcome of that event…

There was a lot of yelling, there was references to my mother, something you wouldn’t expect from anybody that should be grateful that you were there investigating a report of a crime in progress, let alone a Harvard University professor. [Touché]

[When I asked him to come outside to speak to me he replied,] ‘Yeah, I’ll speak with your mama outside.’

I support the president of the United States 110-percent… I think he’s way off base wading into a local issue without knowing all the facts.

Not surprisingly, the Cambridge police issued a statement late this afternoon saying that they are “deeply pained” by Obama’s criticism. 

In the meantime, I urge Gates to shut up with all the blather about using his arrest as a teachable moment on racism in America. Because the only lesson to be learned here is for him to learn how to show due respect to the police. 

Enough said!

UPDATE

President Obama eats crow

3:15PM:  Representatives of every police organization in Massachusetts held an extraordinary press conference earlier today, during which they expressed unconditional support for Sgt Crowley and urged the president to apologize for saying that they (and, in particular, he) “acted stupidly.”

President Obama effectively obliged. Because just moments ago, he held an impromptu press conference, during which he said the following:

Because this has been ratcheting up and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I wanted to make clear in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically…  And I could have calibrated those words differently. And I told this to Sgt.  Crowley.

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. 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.

Trust me folks, in Washington-speak, this constitutes an apology — no matter what his spinmeisters say. And the police should not presume too much about their moral authority by demanding anything more.

In fact, I commend the president for making this gesture. And it speaks volumes (and bodes well) that it was he who reached out to Crowley. Obama said that they had a very cordial phone chat this afternoon and agreed to have a rap session over beers at the White House, which they hope would include Professor Gates.

Unfortunately, I fully expect polarizing pundits to continue ratcheting up this controversy simply because it generates good radio and TV ratings. Especially since the preternaturally astute Obama miscalibrated his words, again, by claiming that Crowley “pulled” Gates out of his home….

Related commentaries:
Arrest of Gates was probably justified

* This commentary was originally published on Thursday, July 23 at 3:56PM.