Obama criticizes Cambridge police in Gates case

Alex Brandon/AP

The president also said that there is a long history of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by police disproportionately.

By Globe Staff

President Obama addressed the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his Cambridge home during his news conference tonight, saying that "anyone would be angry" and "the Cambridge police acted stupidly."

Obama prefaced his reply by saying that "I might be a little biased here" because "Skip Gates" is a friend, and by acknowledging that "I don't know all the facts."

He then recited what has been reported, and joked that if he tried to jimmy the lock at his current residence -- the White House -- "I'd get shot."

But then he went on to say that there's a long history of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by police disproportionately.

"Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; 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's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact," Obama said.

"That doesn't lessen the incredible progress that has been made," he added. "I am standing here as testimony to the progress that's been made. And yet the fact of the matter is, is that, you know, this still haunts us. And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently and often time for no cause casts suspicion even when there is good cause. And that's why I think the more that we're working with local law enforcement to improve policing techniques so that we're eliminating potential bias, the safer everybody is going to be."