[StBernard] Conservative Review - Sgt. Crowley, a Cop in Full

[Westley Annis]

Sgt. Crowley, a Cop in Full
by Pat Buchanan

Sunday, professor Louis Henry Gates retreated from his 
threat to sue Sgt. James Crowley. Friday, President Obama 
retreated from his charge that the Cambridge cops "acted 
stupidly." 

As Crowley has not budged an inch -- his arrest of Gates 
was correct, and there will be no apology -- there is no 
doubt who won this face-off. Game, set, match, Crowley 
and the Cambridge cops. 

It is, indeed, as Obama said Friday, a "teachable moment." 

And those most in need of teaching are the professor, the 
governor of Massachusetts and President Obama. By charging 
or suggesting Gates was a victim of racial profiling, all 
three were guilty of having reflexively reverted to racial 
stereotypes about white cops. 

Here is the chronology.

Answering a 911 call about a break-in in progress, Crowley 
encountered the professor inside the house. According to 
Crowley's report, his request for Gates' I.D. was initially 
rebuffed, and he was accused of hassling Gates because he 
was black. The professor made a slurring reference to 
Crowley's "mama." 

The professor then raised such a ruckus Crowley arrested 
and cuffed him. 

Once in the street, Gates bellowed, "This is what happens 
to a black man in America." Gates then called Crowley a 
"rogue cop." 

Gov. Deval Patrick declared Gates' arrest "every black 
man's nightmare." Obama said the Cambridge cops had "acted 
stupidly" and went on to elaborate, on nationwide TV, on 
the sad history of racial profiling of blacks and Hispanics 
by police. 

Thus the two most powerful black elected officials in the 
U.S., with no hard knowledge of what happened, came down 
on the side of a black professor, their buddy, against a 
white cop and his department, implying racial motivation 
in the arrest of Gates. 

Yet there is still not a shred of evidence for their rush 
to judgment. 

Crowley's partner in the arrest was a black officer who 
said he stands "100 percent" behind Crowley and that Gates 
acted "strange." 

Sixteen years ago, Crowley gave CPR to an unconscious 
Boston Celtics star, Reggie Lewis, in an attempt to save 
his life. The memory of his failure caused Crowley to 
break down in tears and haunts him to this day.

Crowley was selected by a black police lieutenant to teach 
fellow officers about racial profiling. He has been doing 
this for five years. 

And watching TV coverage for a week, this writer has yet 
to hear one cop anywhere condemn Crowley's handling of the 
incident. 

Outside the fevered imagination of Louis Henry Gates, then, 
where is the evidence Crowley engaged in racial profiling? 

The victim here is Sgt. Crowley, not professor Gates.

Crowley is the one defamed as a "racist" and "rogue cop." 
He is the officer whom Gov. Patrick implied perpetrated 
"every black man's nightmare." He is the cop on the 
Cambridge force who, Obama told the nation, "acted 
stupidly." 

If anyone has grounds for legal action, it is Crowley. 
Indeed, upon what grounds would Gates sue? 

That he was wrongly arrested, when Crowley, his black 
partner, the Cambridge P.D., the police union and 1,000 
cops would gladly come to Cambridge to testify that 
Crowley went by the book? 

Moreover, no one says Crowley abused Gates in any way. 
And there were witnesses in the street to the arrest. 
And Crowley apparently had his mike open, and a recording 
of the incident exists. 

But if Obama's racial reflexes served him badly Wednesday 
night, his political instincts served him well him on 
Friday. For he must have sensed that this confrontation 
was shaping up as three powerful black men coming down 
hard on a white cop with a stellar record who had only 
done his conscientious duty. 

Obama picked up the phone, called Crowley, regretted 
his choice of words about him and the Cambridge P.D., 
walked into the press room and told the nation Crowley 
was a "good guy," he himself had misspoken, that he and 
the sergeant had talked about getting together for a beer. 

It was a goodly slice of humble pie the president ate 
there, but it was a class act. To ask more would be 
churlish. As for Patrick and Gates, they, too, should 
eat a little crow. 

The president's decision to go before the White House 
press corps also suggests Obama is acutely aware of the 
political peril here. 

For while his black support is rock solid, his white 
support is soft. And Americans will usually side with 
an Irish cop over a Harvard don, especially when the 
professor is pulling rank and the cop is right. 

"This isn't about me," says Gates. Sorry, professor, it 
is about you. You have shown the country why William F. 
Buckley won laughter all over America when he wittily 
observed that, rather than be governed by the Harvard 
faculty, he would prefer to be governed by the first 
300 names in the Cambridge telephone directory.