Boston Police Officer Called Gates Jungle Monkey

[Sapphire]

He's on CNN now apologizing... “I did not mean to offend anyone. The words were being used to characterize behavior, not describe anyone. I didn’t mean it in a racist way. I treat everyone with dignity and respect."

You ain't racist? Negus please!!! Here's the entire e-mail:

www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/dpgo_justin_barrett_full_email_072909_2710399

MSNBC Story:

BOSTON - A Boston police officer who was suspended for using a racial slur to describe black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., apologized for his comments and declared he is not a racist.

Boston police put two-year officer Justin Barrett on administrative leave Tuesday, pending a termination hearing. Barrett is a captain in the Massachusetts National Guard, which also suspended him pending an investigation.

Barrett's Boston-based lawyer, Peter Marano, told reporters his client will fight the department if he is fired. He said the e-mail was a private message sent from a private computer.

"I think the department has taken such an outwardly over-proportional response," he said. "We have police officers who do heroin, cocaine and keep their job, beat their wives, keep their jobs. The mayor isn't out on TV saying they're g-o-n-e."

Marano said Barrett, who did a tour of duty in Iraq in 2005, will not speak publicly. In an interview with WCVB-TV, Barrett, accompanied by Marano, said he was sorry about what he wrote.

"It was a poor choice of words. I did not mean to offend anyone," he told the station.

"I am not a racist, I never have been, never will be. I treat people with dignity and respect every time," he added.

Boston police said Barrett used a racial slur in an e-mail sent to The Boston Globe and later forwarded to guardsmen and police officers. Authorities are investigating Barrett's actions as an officer and talking to all the e-mail's recipients.

Barrett wrote in the e-mail, a copy of which was released by the Boston police department, that if he were the officer sent to Gates' home, he "would have sprayed him in the face with OC (pepper spray) deserving of his belligerent non-compliance."

Police Commissioner Edward Davis said Thursday that Barrett's "venomous rhetoric" would not be tolerated and added that his hearing will take place in the next seven to 10 days. Union regulations prohibit the department from firing an officer immediately.

"His racist opinions and feelings have no place in our department," Davis said at a news conference.

The police commissioner said he spoke with Gates and his acting spokesman, Charles Ogletree, to apologize for the remark.

Barrett's union, the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, said it condemns Barrett's words and called them "offensive and hurtful." But the union added that investigators should consider all the facts and not rush to a conclusion.

Barrett does not have previous violations with the department, police said.

Mayor Thomas Menino called for his dismissal from the force.

Gates was arrested in neighboring Cambridge on a charge of disorderly conduct at his home near Harvard University by a white police officer who was responding to a report of a possible burglary. The charge was dropped, but the case sparked a national debate over racial profiling.

Gates has no comment on Barrett, Ogletree told The Associated Press late Wednesday. Ogletree added that the e-mail "just tells you that there are some individuals who act completely out of character and it is not the sort of statement or a representation by police officers who I know -- and I know many -- or any police department that I work with, and I work with a lot."

[T-Rex91]

He probably felt safe since Crowley was supported by his leadership and expected the same treatment. Ignant so and so................

[Bunny Hop]

He probably thought he was about to be hot shyt, lol. He was probably at his computer typing all hard, sitting up straight, proud of his words, thinking his e-mail would be another one in a long list. They probably have interns who read every last one of those e-mails and when it was clear he was a cop they passed it on.

Idiot....once that stuff is on the net then it's forever.

[Bunny Hop]

Jul 30, 2009 21:05:42 GMT -5 Sapphire said:

MSNBC Story:


"I think the department has taken such an outwardly over-proportional response," he said. "We have police officers who do heroin, cocaine and keep their job, beat their wives, keep their jobs. The mayor isn't out on TV saying they're g-o-n-e."

Now this is classic. People who get in trouble and then try and put other people out is so cowardly. You messed up and got caught...stand up and deal with it like an adult.

[DamieQue™]

His attitude is EXACTLY why I understand why Gates responded the way he did. Let me quote some of his rambling.

Your defense (4th paragraph) of Gatres while he is on the phone while being confronted (INDEED) with a police officer is assuming he has rights when considered a suspect. He is a suspect and will always be a suspect. His first priority of effort should be to get off the phone and comply with police, for if I was the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC deserving of his belligerent non-compliance.

It confirms what we've been getting at all along, Gates crime apparently was not showing enough servile deference to ego-maniacal police officers.

What's really interesting is the Boston Police officer criticizes the reporter while alleging that he himself is a writer. I say alleged because his e-mail bore no evidence of any writing proficieny or general command of reasoning and logic. Let me post a blurb of what he said:

My last point counters your final 2 paragraphs, in which you state Gates is "this immensely famous expert on race" - you really have to be kidding me? Famous for what? Expert why and says who? What has he done for me and my family? What has he done for the law enforcement community or military veterans or to secure freedoms and our borders in this country? What has he done to help limit and reduce my income tax?

How many random turns did you hear in there? He sounds like the Crazy Birth Certificate Lady except instead of starting off talking about birth certificates and going off about World War II, the Pacific Theatre, and unchanging flags, this dude is talking about what makes Gates a race expert, and then judges Gates racial expertise based on what has Gates done about his family, law enforcement, vets, securing borders and lowering taxes. <insert Scooby Doo here x 1000> What does one have to do with the other?

In the end, he's just another racist, who thinks we are as stupid as he, and will believe he isn't a racist because he promises you he isn't. Prior to this e-mail, this was a dude who could enter YOUR house and question YOU if you lived there, and you would have to comply with his racists a$$ - and oh by the way - show him deference or he'll pepper spray you for being a banana eating jungle bunny. *SMH*

[Bunny Hop]

I was thinking the same thing. If Gate's is an expert on race why would he have anything to do with this man's family, law enforcement, military and income tax? I was reading thinking "WTH? This is major tangent" LOL

I have a degree in Physics so maybe I should be your accountant, tell you how to wash clothes and then tell you how to get to Disney Land from Idaho....totally random and makes no sense!!

[ivy08]

It is just illogical for people to say that raceist and prejudice no longer exsist in 2009. For every one person who says it, there is an event to pop up and proove them wrong. It is unfortunate. And what is sad is that he might even truly believe that he is not prejudice (as he has stated). He may not see the harm in what he has said. It may be like common everyday convo to him.

[Noble Work]

"...I didn’t mean it in a racist way?" and "...I treat everyone with dignity and respect?"

ok if he didn't "mean" these things and treats "everybody" like this, then why use these choice of words? Why did he use that term which is a common offense to Black people?

I think he knew exactly what his approach was and what it was meant for. Now that he got caught this guy wants to punk up and hide. Good luck facing the Black officers in the department....lol.

One other thing, he may not have any prior "Reported" incidents but that's not saying that he is not a racists. And it certainly doesn't say he has not offended any of the Black officers in the past.

He's gone from the police dept. and from the national guard.

[Robelite]

What burned my bread even more than the things you all posted above, was as this imbecile sat in front of the camera on Larry King Live last night, he made the ridiculous claim that he wrote the e-mail because he felt the WRITER of the op-ed in the Boston paper was biased. My question to that asshole...if he was so upset with the writer of the article, why was not attacking HER? Not that I'm advocating that he should have, but nowhere in that bullshit rant of his did he address any of those horrible things at the writer....whom he claim to have been so angry with.

And finally...when he offered that half-assed apology...he apologized to everyone EXCEPT the person he hurled such vitriol toward....Dr. Henry L. Gates!


Little does this moron (and those who think like him realize) he just gave Dr. Gates all the leverage he needed!

BTW,

Props to Rev. Al Sharpton for handing that anorexic, blonde waif Ann Coulter-geist her ass in that interview with Larry King! I guess I'd almost forgotten just how stupid that woman really is!!