Boston Cop Suspended for Gates Racial Slur

05-01-2024 5:50 pm • PDX and SEA Weather

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By The Skanner News | The Skanner News

BOSTON (AP) -- A Boston police officer has been suspended for using a racial slur to describe Black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Commissioner Edward Davis put 36-year-old Justin Barrett on administrative leave pending a termination hearing after learning of the slur.
A person with knowledge of the case who was not authorized to speak publicly about the details said Barrett, a member of the National Guard, used the racial slur in messages to Guardsmen and to The Boston Globe.
Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct in his home July 16 by a white police officer who was responding to a report of a possible burglary. The case has sparked a national debate on racial profiling. The charge was later dropped.
Barrett and the police union did not immediately respond to requests for comment.