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Boston police commissioner calls Gates to apologize for cop's e-mail
By adamg on Thu, 07/30/2009 - 2:25pm
Transcript of Police Commissioner Ed Davis's statement at a news conference today on Justin Barrett's e-mail to Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham:
The Boston Police Department is committed to a standard of excellence. Our community rightly has high expectations for us. It is a standard that the community deserves and we are required to meet. Officer Barrett's actions do not comply with those expectations.
Barrett's email was racist and inflammatory. These racist opinions and feelings have no place in this department or in our society and will not be tolerated.
Barrett's comments were directed at Harvard University Professor Henry Louis Gates. I regret the direct insult toward Professor Gates and have personally reached out to him to apologize for this offense and inform him of the Department's immediate efforts to make this officer accountable. ...
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Comments
Now I think they have gone
Now I think they have gone too far in the apologies department. They did what they needed to do. The email was not sent to Gates directly and if he was not a Professor the Commish never would have reached out to him like that. I think they should have just kicked the guy out, sent out a blanket apology and called it a day.
I don't know, it seems like
I don't know, it seems like firing the officer and apologizing is about right in this case.
Whit
so in case you're keeping score:
Hit baby carriage in crosswalk with cruiser, injuring the child: no punishment except not being allowed to drive a cruiser for a bit.
Beat a student to death: no punishment. Flat denial of any wrongdoing. Assertion that it was the man's own fault, for having a heart condition he could do nothing about...an invalid argument in a murder case (see "eggshell skull" defense.)
Shoot an innocent bystander to death with paintball guns: stern words and reassignment of a senior officer or two (no pay cuts, no deranking, no nothin'.)
Chase after a paroled youth because he looked at you funny, then lie about it on the stand: nothing except a federal judge taking it "VERY SERIOUSLY" with the prosecutor (and not your sorry ass for perjury on the stand.)
Send a private email to a Globe columnist calling another person a banana-eating monkey? Get immediately suspended and (almost certainly, at this point) terminated, plus an immediate acceptance of guilt and personal apology from the commissioner.
I wonder how Woodman's parents feel right now. Gates has a nasty email, they have a dead son.
Not as clear cut as you think
Okay, I can talk about 4 of 5-
1. an accident, or are you saying the cop aimed for the carriage
2. there have been several investigations that have cleared the cops, and though it will be debated (like the Gates case), they were doing their jobs
3. apology by city right away, then a settlement with the family. Also, the cops were trying to disburse a riot
4. I'm not even going to claim I know that one
5. guy screws up royally and no one can defend him other than "free speech"
If the Woodman's want their day in court, civil suits have been filed against the BPD before and will be in the future.
Good grief. With the
Good grief.
With the acknowledgment that I don't know much about the baby carriage incident:
David Woodman was not beaten to death. He was not punched, slapped, kicked, pepper-sprayed, or hit with a baton or any other implement. The injuries he sustained while resisting arrest did not include any form of impact trauma -- or, in fact, any trauma aside from that incurred when he was brought to the ground with less force than the arresting officers were authorized to use. He died more than a week after that arrest in a hospital of a cardiac arrhythmia arising from a pre-existing medical condition -- an enlarged heart -- that put him at risk of death at any time. That his death was tragic, untimely, frustrating, and devastating does not make it criminal. Local, state, federal, and independent investigations by medical, legal, and civilian agencies have all reached this same determination.
Police officials were demoted after Victoria Snelgrove died. Others were suspended and subjected to disciplinary measures that were not made public. The ranking officer at the scene retired before being disciplined. She was killed when an officer fired a lethal weapon he believed to be non-lethal at rioters near her. Everyone involved acknowledged it. The department took full responsibility and, if I recall correctly, the City paid its largest settlement ever to her survivors.
The officer in the federal case was not accused of lying on the stand, at least that I can find in a quick online search. I'm sure you'll correct me if I'm wrong. He is said to have given divergent statements, prior to trial, to a federal prosecutor who was disciplined because she didn't present defense counsel with the officer's potentially impeachable (though not exculpatory) statements. As an example, if someone asks you months after the fact about your July 28 post and you instead give them the details of your July 21 post, are you perjuring yourself?
Looks like I was wrong on
Looks like I was wrong on the allegations in the federal matter, according to Dick Lehr's op-ed in today's Globe:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinio...
Shoulda known better than to comment on someone else's case.
Keeping Score
I hadn't considered what was mentioned in the above comment. How sad and true. This guy has got to be incredibly stupid. I think everyone knows (or they should) that anything on the internet is open to all.
The reaction of the mayor and police commissioner is predictable. This guy is done. To hell with freedom of speech, no matter how abhorant. I'll wager that on appeal this cop will be reinstated with all back pay, etc.
Anyone in the public eye should avoid commenting on line or face the consequences. There's no such thing as anonimity.
You know what else isn't anonymous?
Sending an email signed with your own initials from your private email account on your own Blackberry.
And what the fuck kind of English teacher writes "ax" for "ask" and spells it "jee whiz"? Oh, right, a former one. Like he's about to be a former cop.
I had a weird feeling he
I had a weird feeling he meant to say ax , I thought maybe it was another racial comment?
watching two police forces handle policing issues
For Police Commissioners it's all or nothing.
Cambridge Police claim Crowley did NOTHING wrong by arresting Gates in his own home for public disorderly, notwithstanding the DA dropping the charges, and the law's recognition of the special rights people have in their own homes, and common sense that says you probably should not slap cuffs on the guy who was not breaking the law by pushing in his front door for a specious violation of public order law. Self-assuredly, all manner of representatives of Crowley, including himself, his chief, and his unions demand an apology from Gates.
Boston Police claim Barret's "racist opinions and feelings" have no place in the BPD or our society. I doubt Commissioner Davis will get Barret removed from society but perhaps from the force. As a personell matter, the process may not be as transparent and therefore informative as one would hope. While Barret is arguably not well suited to be a policeman, Barret has broken no laws although he may have violated an employment contract (I don't know.)
Two very different situations
I don't know that we can generalize much of anything from just these two data points.
police
They're at your throat or at your knees.
You can make that generalization...
...if your field is Art, or Literature, or [some group, preferably oppressed] Studies, or some other field in which you can basically make stuff up and everyone either gives you comforting murmurs of approval or attacks your position with different subjectivity.
well considered. well done.
well considered. well done. where did you prep?
Donkeyfnord Academy for Random Internet Wankers
magna cum laude
Didn't you learn from yourself?
that the police dropped the charges? Have you ever heard any comment from the DA if there was enough evidence to go through with the case? Have you heard from the PD?
"Self-assuredly", there are tens of millions of people in this country that want to hear an apology from Gates. I don't think he has to make one, but don't you write the truth here anon...
"Self-assuredly, all manner
"Self-assuredly, all manner of representatives of Crowley, including himself, his chief, and his unions demand an apology from Gates."
TRUE.
FALSE
"notwithstanding the DA dropping the charges"
FALSE
"and the law's recognition of the special rights people have in their own homes"
FALSE
The DA did drop the charges.
True.
If the police knock and ask to enter your home, you don't have to admit them unless they have a warrant signed by a judge. However, in some emergency situations (like when a person is screaming for help inside, or when the police are chasing someone) officers are allowed to enter and search your home without a warrant. If you are arrested, the police can search you and the area close by. If you are in a building, "close by" usually means just the room you are in.
Don't they teach Police these things?
No the police called the DA
Didn't we go over this? I even said the DA dropped the charges and you corrected me and said the police spokesperson withdrew them.
Judges don't have to sign warrants either, but Im not suprised you didn't know that.
You just twist your words so much its getting pathetic.
Its like me saying Plaxico Burress shouldn't face charges becuase of the second amendment.
And did you know the difference between searching and entering? There is a big difference.
www.aclu....
http://www.aclu.org/police/gen/14528res20040730.html
Thanks...
but clerks can issue warrants in MA and many other states.
suspects have no rights
I didn't read closely but Sullivan did and made the observation that officer Barret believes suspects have no rights. If Barret isn't ineligible to work in BPD due to his racist attitudes, then her certainly should be due to his woefully inadequate and problematic understanding of the law he swore to enforce.
He also claims that a just response to Gates verbal outburst is hitting him with pepper spray. Would that be within the limits of discretion or an abuse of power for a law enforcement officer in this situation?
Gates Apology
Had we, as a society, a bit thicker skins, we would broadcast these lunacies far and wide, with an appropriate apology to the more sensitive among us, demonstrate a little Common Sense for our fellow man, and let the fringe element drown in the laughter and public ridicule generated by their own thinking or lack thereof. Along with the right to free speech comes the right to make a public fool of oneself; and like the naked, fools have little or no influence on society. We should "Never Underestimate the Power of Laughter."