gates says it's time to ‘move on’ from his arrest

Yes, with all the evidence mounting against him, I'm sure Gates does want to put this arrest behind him.

"In the end, this is not about me at all."

"I told the president that my principal regret was that all of the attention paid to his deeply supportive remarks during his press conference had distracted attention from his health care initiative," Gates said. "I am pleased that he, too, is eager to use my experience as a teaching moment, and if meeting Sergeant Crowley for a beer with the president will further that end, then I would be happy to oblige."

"It is time for all of us to move on, and to assess what we can learn from this experience."

"This could and should be a profound teaching moment in the history of race relations in America," Gates said. "I sincerely hope that the Cambridge police department will choose to work with me toward that goal."

"If my experience leads to the lessening of the occurrence of racial profiling, then I would find that enormously gratifying," Gates said on The Root. "Because, in the end, this is not about me at all; it is about the creation of a society in which 'equal justice before law' is a lived reality."

This can never move forward until Gates and Obama apologize, and admit their mistakes. They profiled Crowley, and they smeared him, and his reputation. They are trying to turn this into a teachable moment, pushing the idea that Crowley acted inappropriately, and profiled Gates. They aren't backing down from that, and until they do, the issue is stuck.

This can serve as a teachable moment if the intent is to teach that falsely accusing a white officer, or anyone, of being a racist is wrong. Racial profiling is wrong, and as Gates has proved, it goes both ways.

Gates did not receive equal treatment under the law - he received preferential treatment. His charges were dropped the minute he threw the race card, and dropped a few names.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Race Not Mentioned in Harvard Scholar 911 Call

The 911 caller who reported a possible break-in at the home of black Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. did not mention race in the call, according to a statement issued by her attorney and backed up by Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas.

Lucia Whalen placed the 911 call July 16, saying she saw two men on Gates' front porch who appeared to be trying to force open the front door. The call led to the arrest of Gates by Cambridge police on a disorderly conduct charge, and the resulting national firestorm.

In the statement issued Sunday by attorney Wendy Murphy, Whalen — who has not spoken publicly — said she only saw the backs of the two men and did not know their race when she made the call. Murphy said Whalen, who works nearby, called because she had been aware of recent break-ins in the area and was "personally devastated" by suggestions that she placed the call because the men on the porch were black.

Murphy said Whalen was 100 percent certain that she never said she saw two black men.

"It was very clear that she wasn't sure what the men's race was," Haas said in an interview with The Boston Globe Sunday night.

Haas said Whalen, after questioning by the dispatcher during the 911 call, speculated that one of the men — who turned out to be Gates and a black car service driver — may have been Hispanic.

UPDATE: An Obfuscatable Moment

Today, on Fox News Sunday, Juan Williams came up with a fine formulation, in the context of the Henry Louis Gates imbroglio:

"But in this situation, the president spoke without the facts. And so you can't have a teachable moment if it's based on a lie."

Amid all the blather about "teachable moments," I don't recall anyone else making this simple but profound observation: "You can't have a teachable moment if it's based on a lie." Another way of putting it might be to say that it's not a "moment" that's teachable, it's the truth that's teachable.

h/t newsbuster.com