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. The incident sparked a debate about racial profiling and police procedures.
Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham 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?"
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 [oleoresin capsicum, or pepper spray] deserving of his belligerent noncompliance."
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."
Marano said Wednesday that Barrett's comments were taken out of context.
"Officer Barrett did not call professor Gates a jungle monkey or malign him racially," Marano said. "He said his behavior was like that of one. It was a characterization of the actions of that man."
Gates thing
Good thing this officer wasn't the one there.
It's not me, it's someone else.
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Mommy Dearest
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Is that officer still employed?TheCatt wrote:Good thing this officer wasn't the one there.
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. The incident sparked a debate about racial profiling and police procedures.
Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham 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?"
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 [oleoresin capsicum, or pepper spray] deserving of his belligerent noncompliance."
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."
Marano said Wednesday that Barrett's comments were taken out of context.
"Officer Barrett did not call professor Gates a jungle monkey or malign him racially," Marano said. "He said his behavior was like that of one. It was a characterization of the actions of that man."
LOLthibodeaux wrote:http://www.xkcd.com/617/
Gordon - Shut it, cracker.
It's not me, it's someone else.
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Mommy Dearest
- Posts: 1393
- Joined: Tue May 25, 2004 12:59 pm