XPost: alt.law-enforcement, alt.true-crime, aus.legal   
   XPost: misc.legal, uk.legal   
   From: reality@check.it   
      
   Officer who sent 'jungle-monkey' e-mail: 'I am not a racist'   
     a.. Justin Barrett apologizes for e-mail about Harvard professor Henry   
   Louis Gates Jr.   
      
     b.. Barrett uses phrase "jungle monkey" four times in the mass e-mail   
      
     c.. Barrett: "I did not intend any racial bigotry, harm or prejudice in my   
   words."   
      
     d.. Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis denounces the e-mail   
      
   BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- The Boston police officer who sent a mass   
   e-mail in which he compared Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to a   
   "banana-eating jungle monkey" has apologized, saying he's not a racist.   
      
   Officer Justin Barrett, 36, told a Boston television station Wednesday night   
   that he was sorry about the e-mail, a copy of which he also sent to The   
   Boston Globe. He repeated his apology Thursday night on CNN's "Larry King   
   Live."   
      
   "I would like to take this opportunity to offer fellow police officers,   
   soldiers and citizens my sincerest apology over the controversial e-mail I   
   authored," Barrett said on CNN. "I am not a racist. I did not intend any   
   racial bigotry, harm or prejudice in my words. I sincerely apologize that   
   these words have been received as such. I truly apologize to all."   
      
   Barrett was suspended from his military duties as captain in the Army   
   National Guard and placed on administrative leave from the Boston Police   
   Department pending the outcome of a termination hearing. Watch Barrett   
   apologize »   
      
   Barrett said he was moved to write the note because he felt The Boston Globe   
   column about the Gates incident to which he was responding "seemed like it   
   was biased.   
      
   "It did not show the roles and duties of a police officer and how dangerous   
   it already is without having a debate about people getting in a police   
   officer's face, which should never happen at all."   
      
   Asked what led him to choose to use such language, he said, "I don't know. I   
   couldn't tell you. I have no idea."   
      
   He added, in response to a question, that he had never used such language   
   before.   
      
   In a news conference Thursday morning, Boston Police Commissioner Edward   
   Davis denounced the e-mail.   
      
   "We have a relationship to maintain with the community," he said. "Police   
   officers certainly have First Amendment rights, but they can't cross the   
   line. I believe this crosses the line." Watch Davis say Barrett will be held   
   accountable »   
      
   Davis also said he spoke Wednesday with Gates, whom he described as   
   "gracious and incredibly thankful that we took action."   
      
   In his fiery e-mail, which he sent to some fellow Guard members as well as   
   the newspaper, Barrett vented about a July 22 Globe column about Gates'   
   arrest.   
      
   The African-American scholar was arrested July 16 and accused of disorderly   
   conduct after police responded to a report of a possible break-in at his   
   Cambridge home. The charge was later dropped, but the incident sparked a   
   debate about racial profiling and police procedures.   
      
   President Obama stepped into the debate and drew criticism by saying the   
   Cambridge police acted "stupidly."   
      
   Obama, who later said he spoke without knowing all the facts, tried to calm   
   the debate, meeting Thursday with Gates and the arresting officer, Sgt.   
   James Crowley, for a beer at the White House.   
      
   "At this point, I am hopeful that we can all move on, and that this   
   experience will prove an occasion for education, not recrimination," Gates   
   said afterward in a written statement. "I know that Sergeant Crowley shares   
   this goal."   
      
   "What you had today was two gentlemen agree to disagree on a particular   
   issue," Crowley told reporters afterward. "I don't think we spent too much   
   time dwelling on the past; we spent a lot of time discussing the future."   
      
   Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham, who wrote the editorial that sparked   
   Barrett's e-mail, supported Gates' actions, asking readers, "Would you stand   
   for this kind of treatment, in your own home, by a police officer who by now   
   clearly has no right to be there?" Watch Blogger Bunch: Is race discussion   
   possible? »   
      
   In Barrett's e-mail, which was posted on a Boston television station's Web   
   site, he declared that if he had "been the officer he verbally assaulted   
   like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face   
   with OC (oleorosin capsicum, or pepper spray) deserving of his belligerent   
   non-compliance."   
      
   Barrett used the "jungle monkey" phrase four times, three times referring to   
   Gates and once referring to Abraham's writing as "jungle monkey gibberish."   
      
   He also declared that he was "not a racist but I am prejudice [sic] towards   
   people who are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they   
   say is freedom but it is merely attention because you do not get enough of   
   it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers."   
      
   According to a statement from Boston police, Davis took action immediately   
   on learning of Barrett's remarks, stripping the officer of his gun and his   
   badge. Barrett's prior arrests and field investigations will be looked at   
   for indications of racial bias, Davis said. The department will also delve   
   deeper into the officers who received or viewed the e-mail.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)