Posted on 07/31/2009 4:53:25 AM PDT by suspects
We’ve finally found the cop Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been looking for.
Boston Police Officer Justin Barrett, the overachieving 36-year-old with two years on the force, was caught engaged in the kind of uber-stupidity we’ve come to expect from drunken teenage pop stars, not police officers.
If you missed the Herald story yesterday, Barrett is the Boston cop who sent an electronic message to The Boston Globe - then forwarded it to his fellow National Guardsmen - calling the Harvard professor a “banana-eating jungle monkey.” He also said the paper’s reporting was “jungle monkey gibberish,” and wanted to “ax” a question.
But, he claimed in a television interview, “I didn’t mean it in a racist way.”
Of course not. He meant “banana-eating jungle monkey” in its more positive sense. Something to do with the benefits of a high-fruit diet, no doubt.
Mayor Thomas Menino has declared Barrett “G-O-N-E” and let’s hope he’s right. Setting aside the overt racism, anyone dumb enough to send out that e-mail on purpose is too stupid to be allowed on the streets with a gun and a badge.
Barrett’s lawyer, Peter Marano, is already playing the “context card,” arguing that Barrett’s being punished for just “two words” and wasn’t using them to describe Gates based on race.
But this is a case where reading the entire e-mail makes Barrett look even worse. He’s not just a raving racist. The guy in that e-mail is an arrogant, angry, condescending jerk.
In other words, he was everything Gates and President Obama assumed Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley was going to be.
Which is why we may finally have reached that “teaching moment” Obama keeps talking about.
What Obama and Gov. Deval Patrick could learn is...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...
I do believe the "home" he was "breaking" into is owned by Harvard. I bet he doesn't even pay rent.
So when will Gates be fired from Havard for his racism? BO will never be fired for his.
Sure its enough, but it doesn’t need to be national news or justification for the racism od gates and bo.
"Mayor Thomas M. Menino compared the officer to a cancer and said he is "gone, g-o-n-e'' from the force."
I agree, the cop’s e-mail was... um, not well thought out.
But I can’t blame anyone for getting angry. The police department is smeared by a black race-baiter, who then cries “victim!” for absolutely NO reason and is backed up by the President of the United States - who calls the GOOD GUYS in this situation “stupid” (without, of course, knowing the facts). Once he DOES know the facts, he simply sees this as a “teachable moment” (oh, thank you, Obama The Wise) instead of apologizing.
_______________________________
Nope. This guy is both stupid and racist as evidenced by the e-mail. He does not belong on the force.
well i guess we’ll never know since there were no black cops dumb enough to write a similar email regarding sgt. crowley.
I agree ....UNLESS you are in a position of power. Personally, I am young (turned 30 some months back), black, very well balanced, and very successful (t.y.J). If I went to some local barbecue, and the person behind the grill called me some silly name, I would laugh! If I went to the local library, and some old dame behind the desk said that porch monkeys are not allowed in, I would simply take my card, get into my benz, and go find another library that is more accomodating. Then laugh over the incident with my pals (basically, if a rat calls an eagle a mouse, should the eagle fret and wail?)
However, if a cop pulls me over at 1 a.m., and he is a gent who has been known to make overtly racist comments, I would be genuinely terrified. Why? Not because he has a gun, but because he has a badge that confers to him real authority. Sure, I could probably mount a strong legal defence, but needless to say he could, at the very least, seriously mess my day.
Thus, while I would not register nor care about a racist comment from most members of the public, there are certain groups of the population that would worry me, and one of them would be police officers (another important group would be doctors, particularly if it is a surgeon I am due to go under anesthesia and the knife. I would pay many times over to go to a doctor who doesn't feel I am a banana-chumping monkey, as would you if you were in those same set of circumstances).
I personally feel people take modern racism too seriously ...most true racists are uneducated dregs of society ...the vestigial remains of those whose only release is trying to make themselves feel better by washing an entire group or ethinicity (there's nothing as pathetic as say skin heads ranting against jews ...just a bunch of poor good-for-nothings who think painting some swastika on a synagogue will solve things). I've said before that calling me the 'n' word has the same emotional impact as calling me a chocolate-speckled nightingale wearing a pair of rubber wellingtons, i.e., apt to make me laugh. Particularly if the person doing the name calling is wearing a frayed wife-beater and torn levis.
However, if a cop did the same I would be very worried, and for good reason. Unlike the barbeque guy or the librarian, the police officer/surgeon/ decision-maker has real and tangible power. It may be the power to simply tie up my time, or the power to do real damage or cause actual loss, but it is power.
That is why such a person, if a racist, has the ability to confer 'physical, societal or financial loss.' Easily.
As for this cop ...add rank stupidity to his charge. As another FReeper said, he is too dumb to be carrying a gun.
Would this nation get a grip!!! There are thousands of laws and codes that have been written to protect against racism. Every fiber of our society has been altered to accommodate one race that consists of 13.5% of the US population. White people are terrified at work, school, church and home that they will utter something that could be considered racist. Why don’t we just start tattooing big red “Rs” on peoples foreheads and be done with it?
Shades of Mariah Carey who used more or less the same language to describe Filipinos (and by extension Mrs. Altair). Actually, Mrs. Altair is still kind of bitter about it, not that it prevents her from watching Mariah Carey music videos ...
I agree with you.
I don’t want people facing prison for what they say. Let them be free to mouth off as they want. That’s the best way to let others judge them, and treat appropriately.
A hidden NAZI is more dangerous than an open, loud-mouth variety.
Maybe the truth hurts fools like Gates as to whom emulate in life, with their racist attitudes.
The Police Officer will either get the death penalty or be required to attend racial sensitivity training on racist hyphenated alleged Americans.
Molon Labe,
“This cop is an idiot...”
This guy doesn’t need a badge. I am a White man and I have lived in the South all of my life. I have seen Black people treated very poorly in my time, for no other reason than their skin color. We have made a lot of progress in this country on race, it is a shame we have people like this cop and our President making comments that divide people instead of bringing us together. The idea of a “post racial” president is a good one, BO’s comments do nothing to further that idea.-—JM
Beyond the race issue, I’m concerned about the officer’s attitude regarding our right.From the email:
“Your defense of Gates while he is on the phone while being confronted with a police officer is assuming he has rights when considered a suspect.”
So if you are a suspect according to this officer you have no rights. What types of training are they providing these officers.
But referring to the preceding President as "Chimpy" was not racist...
The stupidity of some people never ceases to amaze me...
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