Gates, Crowley meeting at White House set for 6 p.m. Thursday

By Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff

Pop the caps. Let the amber-colored liquids flow. Start the dialogue.

That's what President Obama is looking to do when he meets with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and James Crowley, the Cambridge police sergeant who arrested him, at the White House.

The meeting has been set for 6 p.m. Thursday, a White House official said this morning.

Obama called the two men Friday and invited them to meet with him in an attempt to quell a furious debate over police relations with minorities that began when news broke last week that the white police officer, investigating a report of a possible break-in, had arrested the prominent black academic at his own home for disorderly conduct.

Charles Ogletree, who is representing Gates, said Monday evening that both Gates and Crowley will be able to bring relatives. The White House would not confirm those details.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters today that the get-together is "about having a beer and de-escalation."

"The president wants to continue to take down the temperature a bit," said Gibbs, adding that weather permitting, the three men will meet at a picnic table outside the Oval Office, the Globe's Political Intelligence blog reports.

As for the choice of libation, Crowley likes Blue Moon, Gates favors Red Stripe or Becks, and Gibbs suggested that Obama will quaff a Budweiser, as he did at the MLB All-Star game.

Cambridge officials on Monday released recordings of the 911 call that led to the encounter and police radio transmissions during the incident. The recordings offered a glimpse of the confrontation at the heart of the controversy, but shed little light on who was to blame, the Globe reports today.