Manhattan Democrat Charles Rangel says he’s sorry for the comments he made recently that Harlem is so unsafe these days that even the highly protected president of the United States would run into trouble with New York’s finest if he didn’t have his ID with him.

He made the statement following the fatal shooting of a Black police officer by a White fellow officer last week. Officer Omar J. Edwards, and African-American member of the NYPD, was killed late Thursday while in plain clothes.

Rangel was asked by a reporter what President Obama should do about it when he visited Harlem last Saturday. Rangel quipped that Obama should “make certain he doesn't run around in East Harlem without identification."

On Tuesday, Rangel said, "It was entirely inappropriate to bring the President and his wife into this discussion during their visit to New York, and I hope my off-the-cuff comment did not cause embarrassment to anyone. …The tragic shooting of Officer Omar Edwards highlights the need for additional training of our police officers, and I am pleased that Commissioner Kelly recognizes a racial factor is involved.”

Rangel said, too, that he would like for Attorney General Eric Holder to review the problems in the New York City Police Department “when Black officers are killed by Whites, which too often is the case."