Dear Sergeant James Crowley,
On behalf of myself and all others who jumped to conclusions way too quickly and criticized the way you handled yourself in the arrest of Henry Gates, I apologize.
Furthermore, I applaud your standing up for yourself in the face of being continuously pelted with accusations of being a racist by pundits, bloggers, and angry citizens, and of acting "stupidly" by the President of the United States, himself.
I'll admit, when I first heard the details of the story, I was suspect of your reasoning and figured bias may have played a large role in your decision to arrest Gates, but it seems nothing could be further from the truth.
I would learn that you have taught the class on avoiding racial profiling for the past five years, hired to do so by a black man, and have received rave reviews for your work in the area:
Cambridge Police Sergeant James M. Crowley has spent the past five years teaching a class at the Lowell Police Academy to Cambridge and Lowell police cadets about how to avoid racial profiling, according to Thomas Fleming, academy director.
I would also be made aware that it was you who tried valiantly to save the life of basketball player Reggie Lewis after he suffered a heart attack:
"I wasn’t working on Reggie Lewis the basketball star. I wasn’t working on a black man. I was working on another human being," Sgt. James Crowley, in an exclusive interview with the Herald, said of the forward’s fatal heart attack July 27, 1993, at age 27 during an off-season practice at Brandeis University, where Crowley was a campus police officer.
These are not the actions of a racist police officer, as you have been unfairly and disgustingly maligned.
I know the upcoming days will be hard on you, your family, and your brothers and sisters in blue. You may have a lawsuit filed against you, as Gates is threatening. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton might decide to exploit this incident even moreso than it already has to make money. Gates will be invited on news program after news program to call you a racist. It will probably be really tough, but I've heard the strength in your voice as you stood up to all of them:
"I just have nothing to apologize for," he tells the Herald. "It will never happen."
With your exemplary record, your personal conviction, and the backing of your department and millions of Americans, both those who were with you from the start (I wish I had been on of them), and those who realized they had been originally wrong, you will get through this.
Once again, I apologize for jumping to conclusions, and I applaud you for doing your job admirably.
Sincerely,
AmbroseBurnside