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Professor Gates certainly deserves an apology now!
By Lauren | July 30, 2009
AOL News reported earlier today that a second Boston police officer, Justin Barrett, has gotten himself embroiled in the controversy surrounding Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s recent, controversial arrest by Police Sgt. James Crowley. According to AOL, Barrett sent a mass e-mail to some of his fellow National Guard members and the Boston Globe, boasting that if he “had been the officer [Gates] verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, [he] would have sprayed him in the face with OC [oleorosin capsucum, or pepper spray] deserving of his belligerent non-compliance.”
Lovely, don’t you think?
Barrett has apologized and may well lose his job. Assuming he actually wrote the e-mail, he probably should. (Can you imagine being a black citizen of Boston and trusting Barrett to treat you fairly at this point?) His attorney reportedly argued that Barrett did not call Gates by the offensive term quoted above - I absolutely refuse to type it twice - or “malign him racially.” Rather, the attorney contended, Barrett “said [Gates'] behavior was like that of one.” If there’s a meaningful distinction there, it escapes me. I can’t imagine how anyone could refer to another person by that disgusting epithet then credibly claim to have had no racist intent.
And that, folks, is why I continue to wish that Sgt. Crowley hadn’t staunchly refused to apologize to Professor Gates when the story first broke. Crowley isn’t responsible for Barrett’s appalling behavior, but his “damn the torpedoes” posture was almost certain to polarize an already messy situation, and may have seemed to Barrett to invite such an over-the-top defense. A simple “I’m sorry to have offended Professor Gates” (or even “no comment” if he couldn’t get the words “I’m sorry” past his teeth) might well have settled the matter a week ago. Instead, even if race wasn’t a factor in the initial encounter between Crowley and Gates it certainly is now, and that strikes me as an absolute crime.
To read the AOL News story, go to http://news.aol.com/article/boston-cop-in-trouble-over-gates-remarks/595077.
Topics: Apologies, Personal Ethics, Professional Ethics, Social Ethics, ethics |