Officer Justin Barrett’s Innocent Mistake In Calling Henry Louis Gates Jr A Monkey
LAWYERS representing Boston police Officer Justin Barrett says their client didn’t intend to express bigoted views when he called Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. a “banana-eating jungle monkey“.
What he did man to do is moot point. Perhaps he is not a bigot just a simple man stating a fact. Hey, truth hurts, right Officer Barrett?
Attorney Peter T. Marano continues:
“Regrettably, these words are the lasting picture people will see of Justin Barrett. Justin Barrett … has made a mistake — his poor choice in words is that mistake. His lack of thought into the possible outcome of using such words has caused this debate. Justin never intended for these words to bear such a racial connotation.”
It’s not him, yer honour. It’s the system that allows a man with such a lack of foresight and a limited vocabulary gleaned from hanging around with real bigots - who thought the Planet of the Apes was a documentary and monkeys can really talk and hold down jobs - can rise to the rank of police officer when he should be working as an Austrian news pundit or a New York Post cartoonist.
Barrett didn’t intend “to inflame racial tensions, express prejudice or bigoted views, or inflict hurt and pain,” Marano said.
Barrett, a two-year veteran of the Boston police force and a member of the National Guard, sent an e-mail to the Boston Globe and fellow Guard members in response to a July 22 Globe column about Gates’ controversial arrest earlier this month.
Gates, a top African-American scholar, was arrested on July 16 and accused of disorderly conduct after police responded to a report of a possible break-in at his Boston-area home. The charge was later dropped.
Mr Barrett is a police officer. Some of best friends are monkeys…
Posted: 31st, July 2009 | In: Media Comments (6) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
August 15th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Notice how when caught making hateful remarks they claim they are not racist, instead of admitting they have a problem which is the first step to changing.
In my lifetime I have never met one person who felt something strongly and it did not eventually come out in their speech. Barrett has some serious issues which has caused so much rage against his fellow human beings. If he would try digging internally to address his own inadequacies, misplaced anger, blame for others and overall scapegoating he may began the process of emotional healing!
August 8th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Is it just me or did this Officer Barrett just unknowingly prove Prof. Gates point???
The Angry mob against Gates is very silent now on what Barrett said, This is speaking volumes that these people are themselves bias and don’t want to face reality that Police with racial anger similar to Barrett could easily abuse innocent black citizens. Maybe, just maybe Prof. Gates who has lived in the Jim Crow era had enough this kind of a mindset!
August 8th, 2009 at 3:12 am
I just read where there is a warning against foot and mouth disease, don’t worry only really dumb stupid people can catch it. Barrett has a major dose of it!
August 8th, 2009 at 3:08 am
This Barrett guy has got is getting his 5mins of fame. He made those racist remarks because it was a way to get attention. Maybe he failed at getting on a Reality Show. We all just got Punk’d folks because no one is THAT DUMB!
August 1st, 2009 at 3:36 am
He’s just one of many but he happen to go over board..I think alot of cops do this and not just the men..wow just imagine what they said to the kids..
July 31st, 2009 at 1:48 pm
He is just one of many thousands of racists our police departments are comprised of. I sure would like to know how he treated the Iraqis when he served over there. White cops make racist remarks about the Black policemen. At the present time there is a lawsuit in Federal Court making our news over a racist website run by white cops in Philadelphia making racist statements about Blacks.
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/from_the_source/50955797.html