Obama, prof, cop to meet on race incident

WASHINGTON, July 28 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama plans a White House meeting Thursday over beers with a professor and a Cambridge, Mass., officer, the president's spokesman said.

Weather-permitting, Obama will meet with Gates, the Harvard African-American studies professor, and Sgt. James Crowley, the white officer who arrested him, at a picnic table at 6 p.m., spokesman Robert Gibbs said Tuesday.

"I think this will be a very casual affair," Gibbs said. He called the get-together "an effort and an opportunity to have greater communication, get to know each other and step back from the circumstances that brought everybody together over the past many days."

Crowley arrested Gates July 16 after responding to a 911 call about a possible break-in at his Cambridge home. He and a taxi driver who brought him from the airport had tried to force a stuck door open. Gates was arrested on a disorderly conduct charge, which was dropped.

Obama said he exacerbated the situation when he said at the end of a news conference on healthcare that the Cambridge Police Department had "acted stupidly." While the president declined the police department's request for an apology, he told Crowley during a phone call that his word choice was "unfortunate."