Justin Barrett, the Boston Police Officer, suspended for sending a racist e-mail to a Boston Globe reporter, will be suing both the mayor and police commissioner of the city, his attorney announced today.
The lawsuit against the Boston Police Department, Mayor Tom Menino and Police Commissioner Edward Davis accuses officials of violating the rights of Barrett, 36.
Follow me below the fold for details:
The lawsuit itself is predictable and may be a preemptive move to guarantee that Barrett keeps his job. A week ago, I said that in the end, he would not end up being dismissed from the BPD:
IMO, Barrett will not get fired because in Massachusetts, civil service employees rarely do even for wanton misconduct. Moreover, the same union which denounced his comments, is legally obligated to provide free legal counsel to him.
To show how differently cops are treated for lawbreaking than civilians are in Mass., here is a recent example:
Five Hamilton police officers charged with fraudulently obtaining EMT certifications will forfeit about $25,000 each in penalties and restitution.
Board of Selectman Chairman David Carey told The Salem News the penalties were agreed to by the officers and the state Attorney General's office.
Four of the officers will be required to work 30 eight-hour shifts without pay and will also be suspended without pay for 30 days.
They also must repay stipends received for taking refresher and other courses that were never held or were improperly held, and pay the town $5,000.
So?
Basically, these cops claimed they received training they did not. As a result, they received pay increases based on the training they claimed to have received but did not. As bad as this form of fraud was, the cops avoided more serious charges of falsifying tax records (both in the Commonwealth and federally) which are done under pains and penalties of perjury.
Naturally, the cops lawyers argued that it was a first offense for each officer and they were sorry yada, yada, yada...
My problem with the resolution of that case was that each of these cops did something illegal, flagrantly dishonest, and also put the community of Hamilton in danger because the officers were not properly trained to serve as EMT's. Beyond that, the entire episode reeks of conspiracy to defraud and in the end, these guys are not even facing a slap in the wrist.
So they have to pay the money back. They kept their jobs, which they shouldn't have, and if they work enough $51 an hour detail shifts it will be fairly easy to pay back the money.
The money is the least of the issue as the credibility of those cops, the Hamilton PD, and the Essex County District Attorney's office is permanently damaged. Any attorney can immediately question the veracity of the cops and they have documented examples of how allegedly "honest" cops are fifth rate fraudsters.
...Which brings me back to the Barrett case:
According to the lawsuit, the mayor and commissioner’s actions caused Barrett pain and suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, posttraumatic stress, sleeplessness, indignities and embarrassment, degradation, injury to reputation, and restrictions on personal freedom.
However, the Globe ran a bullshit story on Friday that suggested Barrett may have a first amendment protection and the expert quoted said otherwise:
“You don’t surrender your First Amendment rights when you’re out of uniform, and that’s the key,’’ said Harvey Silverglate, a criminal defense and civil liberties lawyer. “I think it’s a close case. My guess is the Police Department would be able to proceed against him on the basis that it showed a lack of qualification to be a police officer, and he could be fired. Sometimes, there are really two sides to an issue.’’
I would argue it was Barrett's actions which precipitated the actions by Davis and Menino, so he doesn't have a right to complain.
The suit also contends that Davis and Menino’s treatment of the officer is “disproportionate to the allegations against Officer Barrett given he has not had any meaningful opportunity to prepare any defense to the allegations based on [their] statements.’’
Does this mean that Barrett's lawyer believes there actually is a defense to calling someone a "banana-eating jungle monkey?" BTW, the phrase he used is incorrect, proving that Barrett is so ignorant he didn't even know how to insult someone using the proper racist vernacular.
In the end, I predict Barrett will keep his job, although the suspension may stand. Notice that I said "may" and not "will."
No matter how much they deny it, cops are treated differently when charged with crimes than ordinary citizens. The fact that they work closely with prosecutors and judges should be seen as a conflict of interest but it is not. And when the average person is charged with the same crime, they don't have the luxury of a free legal defense provided by their union — the same union which repudiated Barrett's remarks last week.
The Barrett case is also far from being an aberration for the Boston Police Department.
Larry Ellison, a Boston detective and the president of the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers, said the incident reflects a subtly racist culture that permeates the department.
He pointed to several incidents in the last year, including a white officer who urinated in the water bottle of a black female officer and another who posted an article, “Slavery: Best Thing that Ever Happened to Blacks.’’
Yesterday, Ellison and other officials learned that someone had scrawled graffiti in the bathroom of a Charlestown police station. The toilet has two buttons, one for flushing liquids and another for flushing solid waste. Next to the buttons, someone had written Deval Patrick and Barack Obama.
“This is not an isolated incident,’’ Ellison said of the e-mail.