Cop who wrote ‘jungle monkey’ email sues Boston mayor for violating his civil rights

Source: The Raw Story

The Boston police officer who was suspended last week for describing Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., as a “banana-eating jungle monkey” in an email to a local newspaper is suing the Boston Police Department and the city’s mayor for infringing on his civil rights and causing him — among other things — “emotional distress” and “post-traumatic stress.”

According to a report in the Boston Globe, Justin Barrett’s lawsuit accuses the city and the police department of “conspiring to intentionally inflict emotional distress and conspiring to intentionally interfere with the property rights, due process rights, and civil rights of the plaintiff.’’

The lawsuit says Boston’s mayor and police chief caused Barrett “pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, post-traumatic stress, sleeplessness, indignities and embarrassment, degradation, injury to reputation, and restrictions on personal freedom.”

Boston Mayor Tom Menino called Barrett a “cancer” that “doesn’t have any place in the department” after it was revealed Barrett had sent a letter to the Boston Globe criticizing the paper’s coverage of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr., last month.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/04/cop-sues-boston-mayor-for-violating-rights/

What chutzpah.

Deserves what he gets

Nuts. Nuts. Nuts!

PB

For a class of people that deride the legal profession at every turn, they run and hire the best legal team they can when caught.

was the jackass himself. :eyes: What a fuck.

If there were any justice, we'd never be able to find all the pieces of this asshole ...

The concussion from the explosion of venom in HIS email?

Sorry, but the self-inflicted victim thing just doesn't play for me, nor should it for anyone else.

he'll wish the only briefs he filed away were ones sitting in the dryer

and then they'll give him a big pile of cash to just go quietly away. This is how it is done in the big cities. How these people ever got on a police force in the first place defies logic.

it's not as racist as you think.

The bad news (for Boston) is behavior like this will make it easier for the victim to sue the city and cite a climate of racism in the police force.

This is about the most frivolous claim I have seen in a very long time. He caused his own emotional distress when he in essence violated Professor Gates' civil rights. The Reichwing is cracking up everywhere because they still can't believe we have an African-American president.

Poor, innocent, people-loving cop.
:sarcasm:

Cops like that make all cops look bad.

Get a REAL job

This is ironic because they always like to remind everybody that "There are consequences for what you say." They just want consequences for everyone else and a pat on the back for themselves.

good luck opening Pandora's box.... you fucked up bad! Not only are you a racist pig, but you are stupid.

If so then his case is of even less merit.

These RW loons don't have a clue.

:puke:

:banghead:

...born and raised in Massachusetts, moved to California when I was 16.

Any bad Boston press hurts me as much as the current locals because you never lose your roots, ya know?

:patriot:

Think of all of the post-traumatic stress the state caused by what it said Charley did -- and then by all those years in prison.

Hey, if Manson sues, maybe his and Barrett's suits could be combined into a class action.

;-)

Source: CNN

BOSTON, Massachusetts (CNN) -- A Boston police officer is suing the city after he was suspended for referring to a black Harvard professor as a "banana-eating jungle monkey" in an e-mail.

"If I'm charged with a crime I want a chance to answer. I want the chance for a fair hearing," Officer Justin Barrett told CNN on Tuesday.

Barrett has apologized and denied he is a racist.

His lawsuit claims his civil rights have been violated; Barrett's lawyer said the words referring to Henry Louis Gates, Jr. were misinterpreted.

"The choice of words were poor; but they weren't meant to characterize professor Gates as a banana-eating jungle monkey," attorney Peter Marano said. "They were meant in a response to behavior and characterizing the behavior. Not the person as a whole."

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/05/massachusetts.gates.lawsuit/index.html

---

"misinterpreted". And there you have it.

Bye, bye, cop.

:rofl:

1) I was misinterpreted/misquoted/misunderstood/etc.

2) I'm not a racist

All the while having absolutely NO clue why their words were offensive. This guy no doubt has had sensitivity training. He's also no doubt signed the required forms relating saying he understands the policy on racism and diversity, EEO, etc. And understands he can be disciplined up to and including...

He has no case. He better get on his knees and be thankful he has a job.

I have friends who are _________ (fill in boneheaded epithet).

"Some of my closest friends are (fill in the blank)"

So predictable.

I remember once I was doing a 'terrorist fist jab' with someone and it made me think of Ali G. For some reason the phrase 'white power' came out of my mouth because Ali G is a white guy desperate to look cool. Embarassing as hell and I will always cringe when I think of it, but I didn't mean it the way it came out.

Anyway, I'd preferred be considered a reviled racist than try to rewin the respect of all the people I lost by that one. Not that real racism isn't a problem (people who compare Obama to a monkey for example), but I'd rather people just revile me than expect me to jump through hoops to win their affections everytime I put my foot in my mouth. Its rather annoying.

My choice of words were poor; but they weren't meant to characterize officer Barrett as a Fascist pig, they were meant in a response to behavior and characterizing the behavior. Not the person as a whole.

"The choice of words were poor; but they weren't meant to characterize professor Gates as a banana-eating jungle monkey"

Translation: I'm not a racist, I just use racist terms to talk about black people. :crazy:

Any sane, reasonable person that reads the entire email could not possibly believe that this guy is not a racist prick.

So far, I have heard nothing to the effect that this individual has done anything at work to prove himself a racist.

So, apparently, he has no First Amendment rights because he works for the police department. I don't see how his opinions matter. It's his actions that matter. The "race relations expert" in Cambridge was the one who treated a black man in his own home like a criminal.

DU seems to have a real disconnect between the Constitution and reality.

maybe some people don't want to be exposed to these types of statements at work. Just sayin'.

His opinions shouldn't get him arrested. If the police want to enforce a level of professionalism that he can't hold himself to, they have a right to suspend or fire him for it. It is the same at any other job, if you cannot uphold the standards of professionalism, you are let go.

Most civil servants have a clause in their employment contracts requiring a certain standard of conduct both on and off duty.

Do his 1st Amendment rights allow him to send this e-mail? Absolutely.

Can the department fire him for "exercising his 1st Amendment rights"? Absolutely not...

...but they CAN fire him for off-duty conduct that's in violation of his employment contract.


The legal question here is whether or not his conduct violated that contract.

I work part-time for a city government.
We are not allowed to comment at City Council meetings, even if they are discussing our very jobs.
We cannot write opinion pieces about our jobs for the local paper.
And if I were to send an email around, referring to a black person as a "banana-eating jungle monkey," you can rest assured I would be out on my ass.

Here's the full text of his email:
http://www.examiner.com/x-12767-US-Headlines-Examiner~y2009m8d5-Read-complete-text-of-Justin-Barretts-email-re-Henry-Louis-Gates

Check out his suggested alternate title for the Boston Globe article, then come back and say he's not racist.
Unless you know of some other definition for "jungle monkey" out there?

He was an ENGLISH teacher? :wtf:

Can you believe that?
I'm surprised he actually identified himself as such, but to do so, and then send in a letter proving he didn't even check over his work... well, it would be funny if he weren't such an ass.

Addressed to the newspaper article writer:

Your defense <4th paragraph> of Gates while he is on the phone while being confronted with a police officer is assuming he has rights when considered a suspect**. He is a suspect and will always be a suspect. His first priority of effort 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.


** funny, I thought we all DID and DO have rights when considered a suspect. This guy's ass needs to be fired.


*** well there you have it. He didn't call Gates a BEJM, he said Gates was ACTING LIKE a BEJM. Totally different thing. Totally different.

Hateful, bigoted, angry, violent. Fire his fucking ass ASAP.

If a computer programmer wrote a letter like that, it would be unprofessional but it wouldn't be worth firing him over as it doesn't affect his job performance. But a public servant who has to work with the public in emotionally tramatic situations and always maintain a level head so people feel comfortable coming to him for security and opening up to him as witnesses? Hell no. There is no way someone with a mind like that should be allowed to do what the police do.

right if he had not identified himself as a cop/expert and said how he would have handled the "jungle monkey" differently had it been him (was it taser and OC or just OC or just taser).

All police departments have a policy that the cops off duty behavior cannot reflect badly on the department and their fellow officers. His rant put himself and his fellow cops in danger.

Crowley's problem was he was not professional, he violated the law and department policy and he let his ego (his demand for respect for the uniform) get in the way of his training and what he trains others to do.

He has a right to be a racist in his speech. He does not have a right to speak as a racist in his job.

and still insist on using those WORDS...

...but he's not racist...

riiiiight...

Misogyny, bigotry, racism, elitism and utterly clueless.

And this brownshirted pronouncement:
"He is a suspect and will always be a suspect. His first priority of effort 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."

Would that also apply to a mother belligerently diapering their kid, or restraining them from running out into traffic? Or only "jungle monkey" mothers who are automatically suspect by virtue of being "jungle monkeys".

Is our children learning?

And I know who taught the little buggers.

The guy sounds like a case of PTSD about to explode. Read the whole e-mail. This guy, like many of the morons fomenting about healthcare reform, really need help. I hope they will get it through the new system that we are all fighting for.

Says he did not call Professor Gates a BEJM, he only said that Gates was acting like a BEJM. Sounds good to me, therefore, I will not call Officer Barrett an ignorant, racist, dumb fuck cracker, I will only say that Officer Barrett is ACTING like an ignorant, racist, dumb fuck cracker. I am sure he would not object :evilgrin:

How does he expect to patrol minority areas when everybody knows he is the "banana-eating jungle monkey" cop? I predict major hostility. And he is now vulnerable to charges of racial profiling from every minority he ever arrests, justified or not.

Does he really think he can just go back to work?

He used the email system at the police department to send that email.

Now, if he used his home computer and didn't send it to anyone at their police email account, then he might have a case.