Boston Cop Suspended After Racist Email About Henry Louis Gates

In the email, Barrett said the following:

"(Gates') first priority 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."

Although it seems many seem to need reminding, the term monkey, in reference to a black person, is well-known to be a very low racist remark.

According to the Boston Herald, when confronted by a supervisor, Barrett admitted to writing the email, so there's no question about authenticity.

For those under a rock for the last two weeks, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a Harvard scholar, was arrested on the front porch of his own home on a disorder conduct charge July 16. Gates came home and found the door stuck, and was reported via 911 as a possible burglar when he tried to unstick the door.

Gates said he was a victim of racial profiling. Charges against him were quickly dropped.

However, when asked about the event, President Barack Obama stepped into a major mess when he said the police had acted "stupidly." This created a major firestorm, and this new incident will just re-ignite the flames.

However, the site Crooks & Liars had the best take on the matter:

Policemen should not be allowed to arrest someone for being an *sshole in their own home. [...] That's really over the line of what cops should be allowed to do, regardless of the motivations, racial or otherwise.

Let's not forget that the statute for disoderly conduct requires a"public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof." Hard to do that in your own home.

Me? I agree with C&L. Rather than arresting Gates, a well-trained officer would have defused the situation, and walked away. Instead, a show of force, and some would say, power.