Obama stands by race row remark

BARACK OBAMA defended his criticism of police officers in the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr as law enforcement groups and Republicans called the president’s remarks out of place.

Obama stuck by his comment on Wednesday that Cambridge, Massachusetts, police “acted stupidly” in arresting Gates.

The black scholar, 58, was charged with disorderly conduct after a July 16 confrontation with a whitepolice officer on his front porch. The charges werelater dropped.