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: Reviews Comments (6) | TrackBack | Permalink
