2nd Circuit upholds firings over racist New York parade float

[Judi Lynn]

2nd Circuit upholds firings over racist New York parade float

By The Associated Press
04.28.06
NEW YORK — The city was within its rights to fire a police officer and two firefighters who rode a parade float featuring mocking stereotypes of blacks, a federal appeals panel ruled yesterday.

The ruling in Locurto v. Giuliani by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's decision that the men were engaging in free speech and shouldn't have been let go.

"The First Amendment does not require a government employer to sit idly by while its employees insult those they are hired to serve and protect," 2nd Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi wrote in the panel's opinion.

Police officer Joseph Locurto and firefighters Robert Steiner and Jonathan Walters were off duty when they participated in the 1998 Labor Day parade in Broad Channel, a mostly white island community in Queens.
(snip/...)

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=16826

[alphafemale]

1. omg!

The float they rode was called "Black to the Future" and was intended to be a glimpse of life on the island if it ever became more diverse. Participants wore afro wigs and blackface, ate watermelon, pretended to break dance and chanted civil rights slogans.

Near the end of the parade, Walters held the tailgate of a truck and yelled, "Look what they did to our brother in Texas," a reference to the then-recent murder of James Byrd Jr., a black man dragged to death behind a truck by three white men.

:mad:

[sakabatou]

3. MF!

[Hobarticus]

2. And rightly so, their asses are on the street...

I'm a huge advocate of free speech, but this is ridiculous. They have free speech, but not in their capacity as public employees. Using the excuse that they're "mocking white viewpoints" is absurd.

"The First Amendment does not require a government employer to sit idly by while its employees insult those they are hired to serve and protect," 2nd Circuit Judge Guido Calabresi wrote in the panel's opinion.

Buh-bye, dumbasses.

[jukes]

4. accepting a civil-service position

as a government official entails a responsibility to curtail one's rights to a certain degree, absolutely to curtail the right to free-speech.

one must wonder to what extent these people allowed their private views to influence their official decisions while on the job.



these guys are repulsively stupid and brought themselves down.

[Julius Civitatus]

5. Video here!!!

You can see the parade in action right here:

http://real.ny1.com:8080/ramgen/real4/0016BE14_060428_44441hi.rm

[genieroze]

6. OMG! What a bunch of idiots.

[slackmaster]

7. So you can get fired for having amazingly bad taste on your own time

Sounds good to me.

I work for a private employer, and I'm sure they could fire me for making an ass of myself in public during non-business hours.