Boston Police Officer refers to Gates as a "Jungle Monkey"

The Herny Louis Gates saga continues...

From the Boston Globe:  An officer in the Boston Police Department was suspended yesterday for allegedly writing a racially charged e-mail about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to colleagues at the National Guard...  The law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Officer Justin Barrett referred to the black scholar as a "jungle monkey" in the letter, written in reaction to media coverage of Gates's arrest July 16.  Barrett, a 36-year-old who has been on the job for two years, was stripped of his gun and badge yesterday and faces a termination hearing in the next week...  Barrett will receive legal representation from Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, the police officer's union.  A woman who answered the phone at the police association said that union president Thomas J. Nee was not available for comment, but said he would be releasing a statement this evening.  Barrett could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino was quick to respond to the incident, comparing the officer to a cancer and saying that he is "gone, g-o-n-e'' from the force. 

Police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll concurred:  "Yesterday afternoon, Commissioner Davis was made aware that Officer Barrett was the author of correspondence which included racially charged language.  At that time, Commissioner Davis immediately stripped Officer Barrett of his gun and badge, and at this time we will be moving forward with the hearing process."

Racism in Boston?  Perish the thought.  Although, reading through the comments left by Globe readers might indicate that there is a problem:

- "Amazing white people are not allowed an opinion! freedom of speech, or there mad because he was right."
- "I was not aware that it could be cause for termination at your job to be a racist? Here you have all these people out there claiming that Gates was within his rights to be abusive and a racist against a white police officer and yet the officer in this story (regardless of his personal integrity) can be suspended and/or fired for making a private communication about a very public event? So much for freedom of speech."
- "When will Gates be suspended for his racist views?"
- "african americans call each other the 'n' word all the time, and use it all the time around each other and myself numerous times during the work day, and for some reason its ok"
- "The politically correct "thought police" are out of control. Officer Barrett has the right to express his opinion, whether people agree with or not. And he should be able to express it without endangering his job."
- "great, let's find another police officer to vilify since the insanely biased media found a guy who did absolutely nothing wrong the first time around"
- "Instead of vilifying Officer Barrett we should be thanking him. Had the Harvard blow-hard just shown his ID to the Cambridge PD, Officer Barrett would never felt the need to send the e-mail."  (Felt the need?)
- "Give the guy a break he was probably a little tired from locking up primates all day."  (Classy.)
- "US citizens have a first amendment right to call people names. Firing him would be a violation of his rights. I guess we are only concerned with minority 'rights' in this country now though."

Needless to say, the police should be (but usually aren't) held to a higher standard than your average racist (white or black) since they have life and death authority over anyone who crosses their path.

UPDATE:  Now Barrett is apologizing.  He says he didn't mean to use the phrase "jungle monkey" in a racist way.