Residents deplore, hail remarks by Obama

“I don’t think it was the president’s place to interfere,’’ Van Dorn said in Central Square yesterday afternoon. “He’s creating a racial divide, and I think it’s totally inappropriate.’’

Obama’s remark Wednesday night that Cambridge police “acted stupidly’’ in arresting Henry Louis Gates Jr. ignited fierce reactions in this city. Many, including several police officers, bitterly denounced the president’s remarks as inflammatory and ill-informed. Others, including African-Americans and Hispanics who said they have been victims of racial profiling, said the words were a badly needed wake-up call.

On both sides, however, was the unsettling realization that a city that prides itself on its progressive politics and racial tolerance had been singled out by the country’s first African-American president as an example of the limits on racial progress.

Recalling previous racial controversies that have roiled the city - a $15 million racial bias suit against the Police Department settled in 1990, a 1999 controversy over the department instructing officers that pepper spray is less effective against Mexican-Americans, and a multimillion dollar award last year in a racial discrimination lawsuit against the city - many residents and officials said the incidents drive home a hard truth: Even in the People’s Republic, racial lines and distrust persist.

“What the president said was right on,’’ said Daniel Klubock, a former judge who serves on the city’s Human Rights Commission. “When you’re dealing with a sensitive racial situation, you have to know how to deal with it professionally. One would hope Cambridge would be better at this than other places, but there’s no evidence that it is.’’

While few residents feared that the city’s self-image would be permanently sullied by the controversy, many were uncomfortable that a liberal bastion known for condemning Bush administration policies and embracing illegal immigrants suddenly finds itself on what they believe to be the wrong side of the culture wars, its police force branded as racially insensitive on the highest stage.

In bustling Central Square yesterday, many residents - black, white, and Hispanic - said they doubted that Gates’s arrest had anything to do with skin color and said Cambridge’s reputation for racial harmony was well deserved.

“The world is beating a path to Cambridge,’’ said Alann Zenowitz, who criticized Obama for siding with Gates while admitting he did not know all the facts. Citing Central Square’s racial and ethnic diversity, the longtime resident said proudly that the city represented a kind of ideal.

“This is what America is all about,’’ he said.

African-Americans, too, rushed to the city’s defense, praising police as responsive and even-handed.

“They have a tough job,’’ said Ed Harris, a 52-year-old school teacher. “If you’re involved with the police, you need to be forgiving, because they don’t know the full situation right when they arrive.’’

Still, in neighborhoods where Obama posters hang in windows months after the election, many took the president’s critique to heart and said the city has a long way to go if it wants to live up to its professed liberal ideals.

Richard Clarey, a long-time resident, said the jury’s multimillion dollar award last year in a suit by Malvina Monteiro, a former city employee who accused city officials of racial discrimination, along with the current allegations suggest a pattern of poor treatment toward minorities.

“It shows an inability for city employees to put themselves in the position of Professor Gates or Mrs. Monteiro,’’ he said. “It should result in the people who govern this city taking a closer look at how they treat people who don’t look like themselves. But I don’t think the city’s heard the message yet.’’

Some said the liberal image has lulled city officials into a belief that racial problems do not exist.

“Because Cambridge enjoys a progressive reputation, it has not been forced to deal in a straightforward way with issues of race,’’ said Ellen Zucker, a former longtime resident and lawyer who represented Monteiro. “The patina of progressive values that cover the city too often hides discrimination and retaliation.’’

Kathy Reddick, president of the Cambridge chapter of the NAACP, said the group will urge police to undergo sensitivity training and cultural education.

Mayor E. Denise Simmons said yesterday that the city plans to continue previous discussions around the issues of class and race. “It will take everyone working together to get to the issue of fairness and equity,’’ she said.

Some African-Americans and Hispanics in Central Square welcomed Obama’s assertion that “race remains a factor in this society’’ and that discrimination “still haunts us.’’

Paul Jean-Denis, 59, a cab driver and longtime Cambridge resident who is originally from Haiti, said he believes that some officers have treated him with suspicion simply because of his skin color.

“If you’re black, it’s different,’’ he said. “I think Obama knows this.’’

John Francis, 82, who remembers walking around the Capitol in his Army uniform after World War II, searching for a bathroom that would accept blacks, agreed with Obama that “incredible progress has been made’’ in race relations. But much work remains, he said, even in enclaves touted for their tolerance.

“Police don’t expect to see us in certain places, and they handle situations involving us differently,’’ Francis said. “It happens every day, everywhere.’’

Still others said the arrest, for all the attention and controversy it has brought, was nothing more than a poorly handled confrontation.

“Both of them should have backed off a little,’’ said Robert Horton, 64, who is black. “And Obama just added fuel to the fire.’’

Meghan Irons and Tracy Jan of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Matt Collette contributed to this report.