Cop Used Racial Slur in Gates Email

The Gates debate is getting ugly, and the controversy has spread from Cambridge to neighboring Boston. Boston Police officials say that Officer Justin Barrett has been stripped of his gun and badge following a mass email in which the officer called Gates a "jungle monkey." Boston's WCVB-TV notes that Barrett is also a member of the National Guard, and will be on leave until a termination hearing decides his fate on the police force. Boston Mayor Tom Menino weighed in: "We want to rid our department of the cancer, and that is what we did. An individual preaching hate has no place in our society."