Like a Banana Eating Jungle, What...???

Wow...now THIS is what I call "acting stupidly."

Just when Thursday´s White House "beer summit" promised to put all this mess about the white cop and the black professor behind us, here comes Boston Police officer Justin Barrett.

It seems that Officer (or maybe former officer by the time you see this) Barrett got his panties in a bunch over an article by Boston Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham who committed the cardinal sin of defending Professor Gates over his recent run-in with Cambridge officer James Crowley. Barrett, a 36-year old former serviceman, and 2-year veteran Boston patrol officer, thought it the better part of valor to respond to Abraham in a rambling, racist email dispatch. Officer Barrett crudely stuffed it with a top 40 collection of hate speech not seen, or heard from since Eugene "Bull" Connor turned the fire hoses and attack dogs on civil rights marchers in Alabama back in the 1960´s

Here are the highlights, or lowlights…you choose.

In the email, Barrett describes the confrontation between Gates and Crowley like this,"…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."

"OC", By the way, is cop speak for pepper spray.

Later, Barrett gets "jiggy" with a little misogynistic imagery in a half-assed…no, make that a quarter-assed attempt to poke the author, Ms. Abraham. In it he writes, "…you are a hot little bird with minimal experiences in a harsh field. You are a fool. An infidel. You should serve me coffee and donuts on Sunday morning."

Whaaat???

Finally, Barrett concludes his run-on rant this way, "…Gates is a goddamned fool and you the article writer simply a poor follower and maybe worse, a poor writer. Your article title should read CONDUCT UNBECOMING A JUNGLE MONKEY-BACK TO ONE´S ROOTS. JB"

You might be fascinated to learn that Officer Barrett not only wrote this email, but thought it might be clever to send it to dozens of friends and…whoever, from his email address book. Safe to say Barrett´s soaring degree of racism is only exceeded by his all too obvious lack of rational thought and intelligent reason. Even his lawyer, civil rights attorney Peter Marano said, "It was not his brightest moment."

I grew up in Boston. I was in City Hall the day a racist protester tried to impale Ted Landsmark with the business end of a flag pole carrying the stars and stripes. I´ve been called a "nigger" in Southie, and I survived the hateful cauldron of court ordered desegregation in Boston schools, so none of this is new or surprising to me. What would surprise me is if we let this knuckle dragging excuse for what could pass as the darkest corner of the human condition, stay at the party one minute longer than he has to.

Boston´s Mayor, Tom Menino said Barrett´s actions wouldn´t be tolerated and emphasized, "he´s gone –-g-o-n-e". Police commissioner Ed Davis immediately suspended Barrett, confiscated his badge and weapon, launching a termination hearing and investigation into the matter. Last night, a lawyer´ed-up Justin Barrett was on CNN´s Larry King begging to keep his job. Here´s a portion of his apology to Larry. See if you can tell what´s missing; "…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…"

That´s right..none of that,"…I´m sorry dog", to Professor Gates, just lotsa lame acknowledgment to friends and fellow cops. To top that, he had the nerve to let this sorry self examination fall out of his mouth; "…I am not a racist. I did not intend any racial bigotry, harm or prejudice in my words."

Justin…Larry King didn´t have the stones to tell you, but I do. YOU are a racist.

Your problem is you´re about 50-years late for this kind of foolishness. Fellow Boston cops aren´t circling the wagons like the boys in blue over in Cambridge did for Officer Crowley. The commish took your gun and badge, the entire Boston press corps is demanding your head on a stick, and we have a President who brings folks together over cocktails to talk about their similarities instead of their differences.

In short, we don´t roll like that anymore pal, and if the mayor, the commissioner and the citizens of Boston do what they say they´re about to do, you won´t either.

You can reach Elliott Francis at reelfast@reelview.tv