Boston officer fired over Gates case comments

[kpete]

Source: Boston Globe

Boston officer fired over Gates case comments
February 5, 2010 04:53 PM

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

Justin Barrett, the Boston police officer who sent an e-mail that used a racial slur to describe Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., was fired from the force today by Police Commissioner Edward Davis.

"The Boston Police Department is committed to a standard of excellence,'' Davis said in a statement announcing Barrett's termination. "After a thorough investigation of this matter, it is evident that Officer Barrett’s actions do not comply with that standard.''

Davis called Barrett's e-mail "egregious'' and said that the department cannot achieve its mission of getting the community involved in helping police to protect the city with an officer like Barrett on the force.

Barrett wrote his e-mail after controversy erupted last year over Gates's arrest by Cambridge Police, an incident that sparked a national debate over police treatment of minorities.



Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/02/davis_fires_off.html

[frazzled]

1. Holy crap, that email is unbelievable.

Good on the Boston PD for firing him. And let's see if the media changes their tune now. They were so keen to jump all over Skip Gates and President Obama. This is just stunning.

[Texas Mom]

6. Indeed it is AND

the irony of this asshat criticizing the reporter's English and writing skills in a page long, one paragraph rant is amazing.

[WriteDown]

2. And I bet this clown wins his lawsuit.

No doubt in my mind.

[quiller4]

19. I doubt it. He grieved the termination and lost his grievance

because the department followed its progressive discipline policy. The officer had received previous warnings and suspensions before the termination for this email.

[WriteDown]

31. I will always believe that with the right lawyer, anyone can win a case...

We'll have to wait and see though.

[No Elephants]

24. Wishful thinking? You don't know Massachusetts courts.

[WriteDown]

30. I just know lawyers. Want to bet a coke? nt

[graywarrior]

3. There are many that think like he does and I'll bet the release of that email makes him a hero

[muffin1]

5. Prolly be the lead-in for Miss Sarah

at the Las Vegas teabagger convention.x(

[Mopar151]

25. Unfortunately, I'm related to some of them.

Boston and it's environs are Balkanized to a degree almost unfathomable to an outsider. At least "Dapper" O'neil finally died...

[Rhythm]

4. Dr. Gates will be speaking at WVU this coming week...

Thursday, February 10th (for those in the area, and interested)

[Dr.Phool]

7. He was on Colbert last night.

He has a series starting on PBS next week.

[Blue_Tires]

8. kick

[Ptah]

9. This e-mail was written in July and he just now got fierd?

Below is the text of the e-mail former Boston police officer Justin Barrett e-mail
sent to Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham following her July 21, 2009 column about the
arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. Barrett was fired in February 2010 for his e-mail.


http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/073009_barrett_email/

[Dr.Phool]

10. Well, first they tried to fire him.

It didn't work, so they fierd him.

:rofl:

[Ptah]

11. I never did get that accent thing right.

:blush:

[JDPriestly]

14. I would say the author of that e-mail needs psychiatric help.

[Pharaoh]

12. Wow!

Dumbass with extra an extra special kind of :wtf:

[Pharaoh]

13. And I was not refering to you Ptah

Just looks that way on the thread :party:

[TankLV]

15. Not surprised by this at all - knew he was the racist bigot he is right from the start...

what's so disgusting is that MANY HERE were trying to defend this RACIST PIG!!!

[AtheistCrusader]

17. You know the Police Officer that authored that e-mail, and the Police Officer that arrested Gates

are not the same person, right?

[EFerrari]

20. But the poster is right nevertheless. Officer Crowley lied on his police report

in the form of claiming the witness said two black men when she said two men.

And he was known in the black community as "Jim Crow" according to a divinity student that Laura Flanders had on her program.

[No Elephants]

23. "Jim Crow" trained others in racial sensitivity in a liberal city in a liberal state.

That says so much about so many things, doesn't it?


IIRC, "Jim Crowley" not only lied in his report--or let his subconscious mind influence his hearing--about "two black men" but also revised his original report, which instantly disappeared off the Internet.

Just for those who may not know, the Boston Police Department, which fired the racist email writer, is completely separate from the Cambridge Police Department, which backed Crowley to the hilt.

The two cities are cheek by jowl geographically, but have completely separate city governments.

[WriteDown]

29. MA seems like a bundle of mess right now.....

The Irish girl who killed herself, Scott Brown, this?! Geez.

[EFerrari]

32. Right on all counts.

:)

[defendandprotect]

16. Barrett called Gates a "banana-eating jungle monkey" . . . !!!!

Barrett called Gates a "banana-eating jungle monkey" in the July e-mail responding to a Boston Globe column by Yvonne Abraham about Gates's arrest.

But what about the guy that actually arrested Prof. Gates?

The prominent professor was arrested by Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley, who had responded to his home for a report of a break-in. The charge of disorderly conduct was quickly dropped. Gates demanded an apology and the story began generating headlines internationally.


A ridiculous arrest considering that Gates was in his own home!!

[provis99]

18. this cop claims to have been an English teacher?

his email is full of spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and general incoherence. He'd get an F for his little English essay.

on edit: oh, and he's a fucking racist.

[The Animator]

21. No kidding... one word... PARAGRAPHS...

Paragraphs are a beautiful thing. It's easy to get lost in a page long diatribe that doesn't contains any spaces to break up the never ending steam of bile.

See, that's how it works right there. After a few sentences, just hit the return key a couple of times... it has the effect of making it easier to pick up where you left off in the event the reader has to go puke, or maybe has doubled over in hysterical laughter. It's also the written equivalent of stopping to take a breath.

It's good practice to make paragraphs roughly five or maybe six sentences long. After that however, you run the risk of loosing good pacing. I know that I've ended each of mine after only three or four, but my sentences have a tendency to be rather long, and I wanted you to get the general idea without getting lost.

Also, in closing, a word of advice: If you're going to send highly offensive, racist drivel to anyone via e-mail, do your self a favor, and do it anonymously. Don't use your work e-mail account, don't use the email address associated with your home internet account. Don't use a web mail service that includes your real biographical information, and don't use your Blackberry. You may share your nonsensical ramblings with your friends and like minded co-workers without the aforementioned anonymity, comfortably certain that they won't rat you out. However above all else, never forget this, if you've composed one of these category five idiot manifestos on a service that ties directly back to you DON'T SEND IT TO A FUCKING REPORTER!!!

[KingCast]

28. Check it out.

There's more:

Good move but the fish rots at the head:

http://touchfmboston.blogspot.com/2010/02/kingcast-and-touch-fm-blog-applaud.html

http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2010/02/kingcast-boston-phoenix-touch-1061-fm.html

In February, 2009 Dan Conley refused to speak to a former State AAG and newspaper editor who blogged 35 videos of a contentious murder trial in the death of Revere Officer Daniel Talbot. In this YouTube video he put his finger in this black man's face and asked him for "credentials" even though he was aware that Judge Patrick Brady had given the man such credentials to roll video, take audio and still pictures and to provide commentary.

Mr. Bernstein shed some light on why DA Conley gets so pissy when you challenge him, particularly when he knows you've been a successful trial lawyer. Here's a 2005 Story by Bernstein "The Worst Homicide Squad in the Country."

(more, much more at links)

[No Elephants]

22. Bear in mind: Boston and Cambridge are two different cities with two different Mayors, police

commissioners, etc.

This firing says nothing, one way or the other, about the Crowley-Gates fiasco or how it was handled by the City of Cambridge and the Cambridge Police Department.

Not trying to say anything about Cambridge here, just stating a simple fact for those who may not know.

[graywarrior]

26. Last night he gave an exclusive interview on WCVB, the channel Scott Brown's wife works at

He was demanding his job back.

[EFerrari]

34. It's interesting because it's about the same set up as we had at Berkeley.

We had campus cops, the Berkeley PD and the Oakland PD right next door and in/out of Berkeley all the time.

Harvard has its own force, so does Cambridge and I bet the Boston PD are in/out of Cambridge all the time, too.

[KingCast]

27. That's the tip of the iceberg racism goes up to DA Conley's office

Good move but the fish rots at the head:

http://touchfmboston.blogspot.com/2010/02/kingcast-and-touch-fm-blog-applaud.html

http://christopher-king.blogspot.com/2010/02/kingcast-boston-phoenix-touch-1061-fm.html

In February, 2009 Dan Conley refused to speak to a former State AAG and newspaper editor who blogged 35 videos of a contentious murder trial in the death of Revere Officer Daniel Talbot. In this YouTube video he put his finger in this black man's face and asked him for "credentials" even though he was aware that Judge Patrick Brady had given the man such credentials to roll video, take audio and still pictures and to provide commentary.

Mr. Bernstein shed some light on why DA Conley gets so pissy when you challenge him, particularly when he knows you've been a successful trial lawyer. Here's a 2005 Story by Bernstein "The Worst Homicide Squad in the Country."

(more, much more at links)

[EFerrari]

35. Cambridge PD was supposed to do a study and put better training together

after the Gates embarrassment. I wonder if any of that actually happened.

[fascisthunter]

33. GOOD!

here's the pin-heads face: