Officer Justin Barrett of the Boston Police Department was recently suspended for referring to Harvard Professor Henry Gates as a “banana eating jungle monkey.”
His controversial remarks were written in an email sent to fellow police officers, members of the National Guard and The Boston Globe. In sharp reaction to his suspension, Officer Barrett proceeded to file suit against the mayor, commissioner and the police department that employed him.

With the help of his attorney, Barrett assumed the role of victim and issued forth a creatively compiled laundry list of complaints including suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, posttraumatic stress, sleeplessness, indignities, embarrassment, degradation, injury to reputation, and restrictions on personal freedom. Now, color me crazy, but wouldn’t those terms be better used to describe the persecuted and not the persecutor?

Justin Barrett’s defense of his words was nearly as off base as the suffering that he now claims. The officer insists that he has black friends and therefore cannot be a racist. Personally, I don’t care if the guy’s BFF is Nelson Mandela, it doesn’t make the remarks any less racist or demeaning.  Not only is this a flimsy excuse but I’m willing to bet that any black friends he had before he wrote that email are now G-O-N-E gone, just like his job.

Barrett’s military record has been cited as a testament to his dedication and loyalty to his countrymen. Well obviously that doesn’t refer to ALL of his countrymen. More so than the average citizen, a man who has put his life on the line to defend his country should know better than to engage in such oppressive behavior.

Officer Barrett also conceded that he used a “poor choice of words” in his emailed tirade.  A poor choice of words? Something tells me it would’ve have taken more than a good thesaurus to clean up the hate and contempt oozing from Barrett’s email. I think “a poor career choice” would be more apt since the last thing society needs are police officers that lack consideration and understanding of those they should be protecting.

Barrett’s email made reference to Professor Gates “verbally assaulting” his arresting officer “like a banana eating jungle monkey.” Is it even possible to interpret this in a non-racial way? The hunt for alternate meaning comes up fruitless, well except of course for the aforementioned banana. 

According to Barrett "The words were being used to characterize behavior, not describe anyone." Behavior? Was the professor eating a banana at the time of his arrest? Serving ambrosia to the neighbors? Did he have a bowl of fruit on his head like Carmen Miranda? I’m looking for rationale here. What about the monkey reference? Was Barrett picking through a box of animal crackers when he came up with that? Or was he discussing theories of evolution? If so, it’s worth noting that a certain police officer has a good share of evolving to do himself. 

Without a doubt, Justin Barrett’s behavior is not befitting that of a police officer. He doesn’t deserve the respect or prestige that goes with that title. As a private citizen, he is entitled to his opinion no matter how loathsome it may be, so long as he does not use that opinion to oppress or persecute others. We should expect police officers to be model citizens that reflect the honor of their rank 24 hours a day. 
  
At the end of the day, we can only hope that Officer Barrett has learned that there are no absolute freedoms and every action has a reaction. The world may never truly be rid of the hate that we’ve seen displayed here but we can take comfort knowing that at least one person was ultimately consumed and punished by his own hatred.