The prominent black-studies scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the police officer who arrested him two weeks ago chatted over beers with President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. this evening, but the national debate the arrest provoked appears no closer to a resolution.
The substance of the conversation during the hourlong “beer summit” in the White House Rose Garden was not divulged, according to reports in The Boston Globe and other news outlets. But in statements afterward, President Obama, a lawyer for Mr. Gates, and the officer, Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge, Mass., police department, characterized the discussion as frank and cordial.
In a brief news conference, Sergeant Crowley said that all parties had agreed to look forward and not dwell on the July 16 incident in which he arrested Mr. Gates on a disorderly-conduct charge while investigating a report of a possible break-in at the Harvard professor’s home. The charge was later dropped.
“Two gentlemen agreed to disagree,” Mr. Crowley told reporters. “This was a positive step in moving forward.”
Charles J. Ogletree, a Harvard law professor who is a friend of Mr. Gates as well as his lawyer, told the Globe that the scholar and the officer would meet again “to break some bread in a private session and talk about some community-outreach efforts to improve relations between police and communities.” He added that he would issue a statement on Mr. Gates’s behalf later on how the nation should move forward, saying there were more “important lessons to be learned.”
In a statement released by the White House, Mr. Obama thanked Mr. Gates and Sergeant Crowley for joining him “for a friendly, thoughtful conversation.” He added: “I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. 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.”
Family members accompanied both the professor and the policeman to the White House, and toured the building together. Both men characterized the two groups’ interactions as friendly. Mr. Gates later told The New York Times: “We hit it off right from the beginning. When he’s not arresting you, Sergeant Crowley is a really likable guy.”
For more perspectives on the issue, see two essays in today’s Chronicle:
“Race and Reality in a Front-Porch Encounter,” by Lani Guinier.
“The Profiling of Sgt. Crowley,” by David Wright.