Northwest Indiana Discussion

A Boston police officer allegedly sent a mass e-mail using a disgraceful racial slur in referring to Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., prompting the commissioner to move immediately to fire the cop, the Herald has learned.

Officer Justin Barrett, 36, a two-year veteran assigned to District B-3, was placed on administrative leave pending a termination hearing yesterday afternoon. When a supervisor confronted Barrett about the e-mail - in which he called Gates a “jungle monkey” - he admitted to being the author, according to officials.

Police Commissioner Edward Davis immediately stripped the cop of his gun and badge, according to officials. Barrett, who could not immediately be reached, has no prior disciplinary history.

Barrett is also a member of the National Guard, a source said, and the e-mail was sent anonymously to his fellow guard members and the Boston Globe. It was unclear whether the scurrilous missive was sent to members of Boston police as well.

“There is no room on the department for someone who uses those words,” said Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll, who declined to provide the specific text of the letter.

Gates, a preeminent black scholar, was arrested at his Cambridge home July 16 by a white Cambridge cop, triggering a national debate on race that reached all the way to the White House. Gates, 58, and the officer, Sgt. James Crowley, 42, are scheduled to hash out their differences over beers at the White House tomorrow evening. The meeting is being hosted by President Obama, who became embroiled in the controversy when he said, “Cambridge police acted stupidly” in arresting Gates.

what law was broken here?

I see not a one.

Moral turpitude is a legal concept in the United States that refers to "conduct that is considered contrary to community standards of justice, honesty or good morals.

moral turpitude n. gross violation of standards of moral conduct,vileness, such that an act involving moral turpitude was intentionally evil, making the act a crime. The existence of moral turpitude can bring a more severe criminal charge or penalty for a criminal defendant.

Sorry Moby, but he broke the most serious law in our country today. The law of the weak, spineless liberal pussy. The law of "political correctness". No other non-violent violation of the law carries more consequence than the violation of this law. Nothing. It should be noted that liberals and minorities can never be held in violation so long as the target of their attack is a:
-white male
-christian
-conservative

Conduct unbecoming that of a police officer.

Although his comment may be "morally unacceptable" and supposedly violates "moral turpitude" (whatever the hell that is), unless his e-mail in which he made this statement was sent out on a work computer, I see no "criminal" violation. I do not condone his comment, but legally, I don't think a criminal act has been committed.

Geronimo mentiioned "conduct unbecoming an officer", this is an internal matter for the Police Department to handle, not anyone else.

If anything else is to come of this, other than being handled internally for the conduct unbecoming claim, I submit that it may become a violation of his "freedom of speech".

Police officers go through physiological testing for employment purposes the officer upon his own admission has disqualified himself from doing the duties of a police officer.

I would not want a racist Indiana police officer on the force of any nationality or one that has issues with any religion.

Moral turpitude is used by fortune 500 companies and I have witnessed it used against managers supervisors and salaried people all the time who did something that was unbecoming that of a person in their official position that put the company in a bad light.

I expect nothing less from my government.

What planet are you dummies from ?

Apparently this is a cop with a pretty good record. Yeh he screwed up. But he admitted it, genuinely apologized and now it's time to move on. A few days off without pay and the obligatory "sensitivity" training is the harshest penalty this man deserves.

The simple answer is any arrest this guy made from now on of any minority would not be able to be prosecuted. There is no way a jury of 12 convicts any defendant that he testifies against.

It would go like this ......

Defense Attorney: Did you arrest my client because he was black (or mexican) (or asian) (or gay) (or purple)?

Officer Barrett: No I did not

Defense Attorney: Were you disciplined for admitting to writing an email with racist comments?

Officer Barrett: Yes I was.

Defense Attorney: I rest my case

And that is all she wrote ........ so he is useless as a cop.

Divorce VS Murder

A respectable lady went into the pharmacy, walked up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and said, 'I would like to buy some cyanide'

The pharmacist asked, 'Why in the world do you need cyanide?'

The lady replied, 'I need it to poison my husband.'

The pharmacist's eyes got big and he exclaimed, 'Lord have mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband. That's against the law! I'll lose my license! They'll throw both of us in jail! All kind s of bad things will happen. Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!'

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife.

The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, 'Well now, that's different. You didn't tell me you had a prescription."

how nice for the ''special people''.....

these people who think they automatically deserve respect constantly demand that cops obey the rules and their sworn oath but don't give an ounce of respect back to the cop who earned it.....

for the most part the majority of those people hate cops who never did a damn thing to them..

Typical...

Nobody has made the claim that a criminal act has been committed.
Yes we know , it's not against the law to be a racist jackass.

However Mr. Barrett demonstrated that he's not qualified to be a cop.

He wrote the letter. He admitted to it. That shows him to be biased. I don't know about you, but I don't want to run across a cop that is biased against me for whatever reason. Good riddance to him..

Indeed. The OLT exercises that freedom every single time he hits "submit".
GFY old man.