Obama hastens to tamp down controversy he helped fire

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US President Barack Obama has backed down from a statement criticizing a local police department's arrest of a prominent African-American Harvard University scholar. The president acknowledged he did not have all of the facts before saying the police had "acted stupidly" in the case.

President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about the incident with  Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass. police officer James  Crowley, Friday, July 24, 2009, in the White House pressroom in  Washington.

US President Barack Obama said, "Because this has been ratcheting up, and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I want to make clear that in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department, or Sergeant Crowley specifically, and I could have calibrated those words differently and I told this to Sergeant Crowley."

President Obama criticized the Cambridge Police Department's actions on Wednesday after Sergeant James Crowley arrested Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates for disorderly conduct. Gates entered his house through the back door after finding his front door jammed upon returning from a trip to China. Area police, however, received a call from a neighbor saying a man was breaking into the house. Sergeant Crowley responded and he claims the internationally-renowned scholar became belligerent during questioning. Police have since dropped their charges against Gates but the professor has accused Crowley of racist behavior and demanded an apology. The case has prompted a national debate over race issues.