The woman who made the 911 call that led to Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates' controversial arrest wasn't present at the so-called beer summit.
Sgt. James Crowley and professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. sit down with the president and vice president Thursday.
-Lucia Whalen, who called 911 to report a possible break-in, speaks to reporters Wednesday. -
-From MSNBC: Harvard Professor Gates 911 Caller Lucia Whalen Holds Press Conference-
-Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested after a break-in was reported to police. -
-Sgt. James Crowley and professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. sit down with the president and vice president Thursday-
Sgt. James Crowley and professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. sit down with the president and vice president Thursday.
But she got a shot of kindness and a taste of gratitude from Gates himself.
Lucia Whalen received a bouquet of flowers at her office from Gates, according to Whalen's attorney, Wendy Murphy.
"She described them a as amazing, and appreciated them very much," Murphy said of the bouquet.The attorney described the flowers as being a beautiful assortment of what she believed were different colored roses.
An officer responding to a report of a possible break-in at Gates' Cambridge, Massachusetts, home arrested the professor on July 16 for disorderly conduct. The charge was later dropped.
The arrest sparked a national debate about race and police relations.
Whalen said an older woman with no cell phone told her that she was worried someone was trying to break into the home, and decided to call 911.
Whalen never referred to black suspects when she called authorities about the suspected break-in.
The meeting has been called the "beer summit."
After the meeting, Obama said in a statement he was thankful to Gates and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley for joining him at for "a friendly, thoughtful conversation.
"Even before we sat down for the beer, I learned that the two gentlemen spent some time together listening to one another, which is a testament to them," the president's statement said
Obama's initial comments on the incident drew criticism and later he softened his stance, saying, "I could've calibrated those words differently."
Murphy told CNN that Whalen has been receiving other apologies and accolades from people all over the world, but so far, no beer.At the time, it seemed a throwaway pleasantry when the president ankle-deep in anger about his "acted stupidly" comment.
"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," President Obama said of Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley in opening a July 24 press conference.
On a Cambridge, Mass., front porch on July 17, race brought out indignation and frustration. Beginning with Mr. Obama's "beer summit," however, the nation has gotten perhaps the better measure of the professor and police officer.
For a president looking for "teachable moments," it is an instructive and cautionary tale: Race can sometimes bring both the best and the worst out of "two good people."
The worst is already well known. Gates lost his temper, alleging that police suspected him of breaking into his own home because he was black. Crowley overreacted, some police say, arresting a Harvard professor with a cane on his own property.
The best began the first moment that Gates and Crowley saw each other after the charges of disorderly conduct were dropped. In a post-meeting press conference, Crowley said: "The professor and I encountered each other while we were both on individual tours of the White House, and the professor approached me and introduced his family, I introduced my family, and then we continued on with the tour, but as a group."
A photographer caught this image of Crowley helping Gates down the steps at the White House.
--
In his first public appearance since sharing a beer at the White House on Thursday with the officer and President Barack Obama, Gates said the national debate over racial profiling sparked by his arrest shows that issues of class and race still run "profoundly deep" in the United States.
Gates appeared at the festival to promote his 2009 book, "In Search of Our Roots: How 19 Extraordinary African Americans Reclaimed Their Past." The book traces the family trees of black celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Chris Rock.
"They have not been resolved at all," he said, speaking to a crowd of more than 150 who came to see him at the Martha's Vineyard Book Festival.
Gates was mostly light-hearted during his speech and even poked fun at himself after a man in the crowd told him he admired his sense of humor.
Gates was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge at his Cambridge home after police responded to a 911 call about a possible burglary.
The officer who arrested him, Sgt. James Crowley, said Gates became belligerent and called him a racist after he asked for identification. Gates accused police of racial profiling and called Crowley a "rogue cop."
The charge was dropped.
Obama stepped into the fray during a White House news conference when he said Cambridge police had "acted stupidly." He later said he should have chosen his words more carefully and invited the two men to the White House for a beer.
Gates said that the night before he went to the White House, he dreamed about getting arrested there.
When the two first came face to face in the White House, Gates said that both he and his family and Crowley and his family "looked like a deer caught in headlights."
He said Crowley looked "so relieved" when he shook his hand, and the two were able to find humor in the media frenzy unleashed by his arrest.
Gates said he and Crowley discussed meeting again privately — either going to lunch or taking in a Boston Red Sox or Celtics game — or having their two families go out to dinner together.
"I offered to get his kids into Harvard if he doesn't arrest me again," he said, drawing loud laughter from the audience.
---------------------------------------------------------
0 comments:
Post a Comment