Officials: Hub cop used racial slur in Gates e-mail
By Jessica Van Sack | Wednesday, July 29, 2009 |
http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage

A Boston police officer allegedly sent a mass e-mail using a disgraceful
racial slur in referring to Harvard University professor Henry Louis
Gates Jr., prompting the commissioner to move immediately to fire the
cop, the Herald has learned.

Officer Justin Barrett, 36, a two-year veteran assigned to District B-3,
was placed on administrative leave pending a termination hearing
yesterday afternoon. When a supervisor confronted Barrett about the
e-mail - in which he called Gates a “jungle monkey” - he admitted to
being the author, according to officials.

Police Commissioner Edward Davis immediately stripped the cop of his gun
and badge, according to officials. Barrett, who could not immediately be
reached, has no prior disciplinary history.

Barrett is also a member of the National Guard, a source said, and the
e-mail was sent anonymously to his fellow guard members and the Boston
Globe. It was unclear whether the scurrilous missive was sent to members
of Boston police as well.

“There is no room on the department for someone who uses those words,”
said Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll, who declined to provide
the specific text of the letter.

Gates, a preeminent black scholar, was arrested at his Cambridge home
July 16 by a white Cambridge cop, triggering a national debate on race
that reached all the way to the White House. Gates, 58, and the officer,
Sgt. James Crowley, 42, are scheduled to hash out their differences over
beers at the White House tomorrow evening. The meeting is being hosted
by President Obama, who became embroiled in the controversy when he
said, “Cambridge police acted stupidly” in arresting Gates.

Developing ...
Article URL:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/reg...icleid=1187845
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Whatever moral rules you have proposed, abide by them as they were laws,
and as if you would be guilty of impiety by violating any of them,
*unless* you are a conservative Republican office holder or minister. If
that is your position in life, then anything goes.