Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley share responsibility for the confrontation between them that ignited a national debate on race, an investigation by an independent review committee found.
The Boston Channel reports:
The incident was “avoidable” and each man “missed opportunities to ‘ratchet down’ the situation and end it peacefully,” the Cambridge Review Committee wrote in a report that is sharply critical of the two men. WCVB-TV obtained the report in advance of its public release.
The confrontation in Cambridge exploded into a firestorm that reached the White House when Crowley arrested Gates on July 16, 2009, for disorderly conduct after a caller reported seeing two men breaking into Gates’ home.
Crowley, who thought he might be responding to a burglary in progress, had approached the house cautiously. In fact, Gates, who had just returned from a trip to China, was attempting to open a door that was broken. The confrontation in Cambridge exploded into a firestorm that reached the White House when Crowley arrested Gates on July 16, 2009, for disorderly conduct after a caller reported seeing two men breaking into Gates’ home.
Crowley, who thought he might be responding to a burglary in progress, had approached the house cautiously. In fact, Gates, who had just returned from a trip to China, was attempting to open a door that was broken.
