Boston Police Dept. Fires Officer Who Used Racial Slur to Describe Harvard Professor

A police officer who described a Harvard professor as a “banana-eating jungle monkey” in an e-mail message has been fired from the force, The Boston Globe reported Saturday. Justin Barrett wrote the slur in a message to Yvonne Abraham, a Globe columnist, about Henry Louis Gates Jr., the professor who accused another officer of racial profiling when he arrested Mr. Gates for disorderly conduct. The police were investigating a call about a break-in—it was Mr. Gates, without keys, opening his own door—and the event led to a national discussion about racial profiling.