Calling the man a "banana-eating jungle monkey" was "a poor choice of words"? Ya think? lol . . .
Boston mayor wants officer fired for e-mail about Harvard scholarBloomberg News
BOSTON — Boston Mayor Thomas Menino wants to fire a Boston police officer and National Guard captain accused of sending an e-mail containing a racial slur about Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates, a spokeswoman said.
Officer Justin Barrett, 36, was suspended two days ago by the police department pending a termination hearing for sending out an e-mail that Elaine Driscoll, a police spokeswoman, said contained "racially charged language." The National Guard also suspended him.
"There is no room in the police department for this type of behavior," Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said by phone today. "The mayor commends the police commissioner for taking swift and decisive action."
Barrett told WCVB-TV last night that he is "not a racist" and didn't mean to offend anyone. He said the expression he used in his e-mail was "a poor choice of words."
Barrett allegedly referred to Gates, director of the Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African & African American Research, as a "banana-eating jungle monkey" whom he would have sprayed in the face with pepper spray, according to the Boston Herald.
Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said he apologized to Gates yesterday on behalf of the department.
Gates has been at the center of a controversy about race since he was arrested on July 16 by Cambridge police Sergeant James Crowley and charged with disorderly conduct. Police responding to the report of a break- in arrested Gates at his home. Prosecutors dropped the charge.
Boston police haven't released a copy of the e-mail.
The National Guard became aware of the e-mail on July 23 and suspended Barrett from duty after a preliminary investigation on July 25, according to a statement on the Guard's Web site.
"The Massachusetts National Guard does not and will not tolerate racially insensitive language," according to the statement. "The language contained in the e-mail violates policies of the Massachusetts National Guard and what it stands for."
Davis said he found out on July 28 that Barrett admitted writing the e-mail, and then suspended the officer and began the process to fire him.
"Police Commissioner Davis moved immediately to strip the officer of his badge and gun and proceeded toward a termination hearing," Driscoll, the spokeswoman, said.
Police officials became aware of the e-mail separately from the Guard when a lieutenant heard about it from officers who had seen it and reported it to his captain, Davis said at a televised press conference today. He said the department is investigating who on the force may have seen the e-mail.
"There is no indication it was widely distributed," Davis said. "This type of venomous rhetoric is severely damaging; we will not allow the unacceptable actions of one member to define who we are."
Police are also investigating how Barrett dealt with the community, Davis said. He said he is encouraged because officers were shocked by the e-mail and it was reported promptly.
He said he doesn't believe there is widespread racism in the Boston police department.
Cambridge Union Baptist Church pastor Jeffrey Brown, another speaker at the press conference, said he hopes police look at whether officers supported or rejected the e-mail when they saw it.
The church began more than 100 years ago as a place of worship for freed slaves and free blacks in the Boston area, according to its Web site.
The Boston Police Patrolmen's Association denounced Barrett's comments in a letter released last night and signed by Thomas Nee, the union's president.
"While the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association has a duty to assure that the contractual and due process rights of each and every member are protected, we strongly denounce these statements as being offensive and hurtful," the letter said.
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