I just saw this on the Boston Globe web site
An officer in the Boston Police Department was suspended yesterday for allegedly writing a racially charged e-mail about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to colleagues at the National Guard, a law enforcement official said. Mayor Thomas M. Menino compared the officer to a cancer and said he is "gone, g-o-n-e'' from the force.
The law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Officer Justin Barrett referred to the black scholar as a " jungle monkey" in the letter, written in reaction to media coverage of Gates's arrest July 16.
TV Report here from a Boston tv station.
Who will defend this cop?
Justin Barrett, photo courtesy of the Boston Globe
Barrett will receive legal representation from Boston Police Patrolmen's Assocation, the police officer's union. A woman who answered the phone at the police association said that union president Thomas J. Nee was not available for comment, but said he would be releasing a statement this evening.
I will update momentarily.
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Update #1
You can read the email sent by Justin Barrett here.
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Update #2
I dug up this cartoon from the 2008 Election. In it, David Horsey of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer illustrates the kind of nonsense that has led to the "Birthers" doing things that can best be described as bizarre. No doubt, it also encourages others to use language that gets them in serious trouble.
When will it end?
David Horsey, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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Update #3
Here is a tv report about the incident from WCVB in Boston.
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Update #4
Here's a CNN report via the Huffington Post
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Update #5
In a related story, the Associated Press reports
Meanwhile, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer accepted the resignation of Lee Landor, his deputy press secretary, after she called Gates a racist and referred to President Barack Obama as "O-dumb-a."
Landor's comments on the social networking site Facebook were inappropriate, Stringer said in a statement.
Landor defended her entries, but added: "It is understandable that a black man encountering police will be suspicious of racial profiling, based on the long history of racism in this country."