Posted on 04/24/2009 8:36:36 AM PDT by stan_sipple
So today's Philadelphia Inquirer brings us this news:
Five Philadelphia police officers were fired yesterday for alleged misconduct, including two incidents in which officers were accused of using racial slurs.
Among them was William Thrasher, 24, who allegedly called African Americans in his 22d District "animals" and worse.
Thrasher, who had been on the force for two years, was quoted by a Temple University journalism student who was riding with him on patrol for a class assignment. . . . During the ride-along, Thrasher allegedly referred to the violence in his predominantly African American district as "typical n- s-" or "TNS."
Officers Donald Swan and Anthony Ferriola were also dismissed on allegations that they used racial epithets on the job. The remarks allegedly were made toward students while the two responded to a fight March 13 inside Audenried High School in South Philadelphia.
We've come to a pretty unfortunate place when the words "First Amendment" do not even show up in an article like this. Putting aside consideration of what kind of jackass would say stuff like that when he's got a journalism student in the back seat for a ride-along, firing a cop because he said nasty things to a ride-along journalist seems fairly outrageous to me -- without any showing that his conduct on the job was in any way deficient.
[And in a nice Kafka-esque touch, given the questions that were raised about the accuracy of the journalism student's account of Thrasher's language, "Chris Harper, the associate journalism professor at Temple who edited McDonald's article, said the commissioner's action vindicated the accuracy of McDonald's work." Nice! The Commissioner fires Thrasher because of the contents of the article, and that shows that the article was accurate!]
hate crime, though crime at work. you will loose your job if you speak out of turn, or utter the forbidden word which cannot be put in print. if you call a bunch of out of control kids in a fight “animals”, you will be regarded as racist and be fired.
this is obama new amerika!! sieg hiel, obama!!!!!!
maybe the fact is the kids are rotten animals and worse. the cop probably knows, he deals with them daily on the job.
I assume that Mr. Post will be writing to his representatives in support of Janet Napolitano. It would, after all, be "fairly outrageous" to fire her "because [s]he said nasty things".
Firing him based on the word of one person? If the officer really feels that way toward the public then he should not be in a position of power. I don’t like the idea that someone can be fired based on the word of one person though. Then anyone could claim a cop used a racial slur just to cause trouble.
the first amendment probably violates some european treaty that Obama and the Rat senate will ratify soon.
To be fair, that cop has A LOT of power.
If he doesn’t like somebody’s race or skin color, he has the power to DESTROY their lives.
That’s just the way it is with agents of the government.
Absent that power, I could give a rats ass what he says about the people or the neighborhood.
I know that everyone on occasion loses it at work, but we should at least try to be professionally behaved.
Police are highly regulated, and you just can’t get caught using angry racial language in a predominantly black city. Especially on duty. He wasn’t home having a beer, he was being interviewed in his patrol car.
The issue of whether we should be able to use certain language is there too. The N word was never so feared that it couldn’t be said on tv, until the OJ trial, as I recall. It is childish to think we are going to expunge all bad language from a grown man’s vocabulary, no matter his race. The words are being elevated by making them so forbidden.
true, teh cops do have power, but the question is does he abuse it? his use of words by themselves do not amount to abuse of power. that is the problem with forbidden words and hate crime style rules.
as I said the kids probably were acting like animals.
My friends son is a cop and rather than calling them names like white trash, dirtball, POS he just calls them democrats.......
As my post indicated, he has the power of government force behind any prejedices.
If he indicates a prejudice against the people he’s supposed to patrol/protect, he should be fired.
It matters because the public’s perception of the police matters. And rightly so. (Assuming he was quoted accurately, of course)
So he got fired for revealing a state secret?
In today’s world, you aren’t allowed to criticize a protected class member for ANYTHING! Suppose a protected class member starts acting like an animal. You aren’t allowed to say animal.
Suppose an oppressor class member starts acting like an animal. Say anything you want.
It's like going to a surgeon, as a black person, who just goes around calling black people nigg@rs. Again, I don't think I would want to be put under the knife by him ...although at least then you can decide on your doctor. One cannot choose which cop pulls them over because you were driving 5 miles faster than the speed limit (even thoough your speedometer says you are 10 below). I know we like everything being clear, the good guys to wear white hats and the bad guys dark trenchcoats, but in the REAL world things are not ALWAYS that clear. I know I would be very uncomfortable being stopped by such a police officer, and not because of what he says (couldn't care less ...it would be funny even, considering I was successful by the age of 22, being called a word that has no real emotional significance to me) ....but because of the very real power that cop would have to give me a very bad day.
Quite different from a librarian slinging 'n' words.
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