Cop who arrested Gates not sorry

A white police sergeant accused of racism after he arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his home insisted Wednesday he won't apologize for his treatment of the Harvard professor.

• Watch Obama's full comments
• Watch the arresting officer's comments
• Read the police report
• Give us your comments here!

Gates has demanded an apology from Sgt. James Crowley, who had responded to the home near Harvard University to investigate a report of a burglary and demanded the scholar show him identification. Police say the 58-year-old at first refused and then accused the officer of racism.

Gates said Crowley walked into his home without his permission and only arrested him as the professor followed him to the porch, repeatedly demanding the sergeant's name and badge number because he was unhappy over his treatment.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday he didn't know what role race played in the incident but added that police in suburban Boston "acted stupidly" in arresting Gates even after he offered proof that he was in his own home. ( Watch the clip of Obama's response . )

"I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry," Obama said. "Number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. And number three - what I think we know separate and apart from this incident - is that there is a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately, and that's just a fact."

He said federal officials need to continue working with local law enforcement "to improve policing techniques so that we're eliminating potential bias."

Crowley said Wednesday he's disappointed by the heated national debate triggered by the incident and insisted he followed proper procedures in arresting Gates last week in Cambridge on a charge of disorderly conduct. The charge was dropped Tuesday.

Officers were responding to the home Gates rents from Harvard after a woman reported seeing "two black males with backpacks" trying to force open the front door, according to a police report. Gates, who had returned from a trip overseas with a driver, said he had to shove the door open because it was jammed. He was inside, calling the company that manages the property, when police arrived.

Gates was accused of "tumultuous" behavior toward the officers, but the scholar countered by saying Crowley was clearly responding to racial profiling and "couldn't understand a black man standing up for his rights, right in his face."

___

Associated Press writer Melissa Trujillo contributed to this story from Boston.

Follow FOX25 Twitter!!