Posted on 04/23/2006 10:32:45 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Man Wins Case After Firing Over Confederate Flag
Worker Refused To Remove Confederate License Plate
POSTED: 7:50 am EDT April 21, 2006
TAMPA, Fla. -- A man who was fired by the city of Tampa for refusing to remove his Confederate flag license plate has settled a lawsuit against the city.
Larry Carpenter will receive $4,500. But Carpenter, an employee in good standing for six years, won't get his job back as a traffic maintenance specialist.
The paper reported that Carpenter's case began in January 2002, when his boss told him to remove the tag because someone had complained. Carpenter would not follow the order to remove the tag, so he was repeatedly disciplined. His discipline included negative comments on his annual evaluation, suspension without pay on three occasions and then firing in September 2002, The Tampa Tribune reported.
However, his attorney said Carpenter feels "vindicated."
"He feels vindicated," attorney Luke Lirot told the Tribune, "by knowing the courts have recognized he had a First Amendment right to display the Confederate flag as a reflection of his Southern heritage and traditions that he viewed as important."
Carpenter was fired in 2002 after he refused an order by the city's Public Works Department to remove the flag or park his truck off city property.
Lirot said his client belonged to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which “celebrates Southern tradition” and has black members.
"It's not racist at all," Lirot said
He was given $4500 to basically STFU. He still lost his job.
"He was given $4500 to basically STFU. He still lost his job."
He probably paid his laywer more than that to try the case.
What an idiot. Oh yeah I got $4,500 [which will be gone in two weeks]. I have no job and this will stain my resume for any future employment consideration. All because I wanted to worship a relic from the 1800s.
I am in no way a supporter of the confederate battle flag . . . but I don't think the City should have had any say in what the man had on his own personal vehicle.
He should have parked off the property and then walked around looking for another state specialty plate. Then make a complaint that the plate "offends" him. Florida has a ton of specialty plates.
No action on the other plate owner? Then sue. He'd win and still have his job.
We would probably be irritated if this fellow had a FreeRepublic plate on his car and his government told him to remove it. Or if he was parked at a government school with an American flag and the government school told him to remove it.
Maintaining a consistent position and avoiding situational ethics is a good thing.
This wasn't a victory. The city setteled because it was cheaper to do so than to go through with the case. The Sons of Confederate Veterans or likeminded organizations with a legal arm should have filed to join his suit, and carried it through. What Tampa was doing was unconstitutional.
I hope he invests his hard earned settlement wisely, like in $4480 in Lotto tickets and the rest in beer and chew.
I'm going to avoid Tampa now that they've fired the guy whose job it was to maintain the traffic...I assume the traffic is in an awful mess by now.
I have observed many relics in the churches here in Bavaria, grizzly collections of bones and skulls. Shall I inform the locals that they are worshipping "relics?"
Maybe we should let this man have his principles, and another his faith. Maybe we should feel a bit of gratitude that this man has won a small battle against the thought police on our behalf.
If the PC crowd gets away with outlawing the Confederate Battle Flag that is displayed by ancestors of those men, then where will the line be drawn. A relic of the past? I guess the Cross representing Christianity could be also construed as such. Rectal orifices that pick and choose their free speech issues are liberals, Commies and RINO's that have big mouths that are made to offend, much like the liberals, commies, and RINOs/Democrats.
The title says he won, the first line says he settled. 4500 bucks and no job sounds like he settled which isn't winning in any shape, way or form.
"He got fired for having a license plate which is officially issued by the state he lives in. Somehow that doesn't make sense."
No, it doesn't. But does Florida really issue a confederate flag license plate? I think Florida is one of a few states that only require one license plate, rather than two, so many Florida cars have vanity "plates" in the front. Maybe this was one of those.
Talk about your relics of the past.
Try using that argument with black activists...
Oh I am, I love it. I particularly like it when I display the Mississippi state flag on our flag pole for my visiting MS friends, most people are so damned ignorant they don't know what it is; then there's the 1st flag of the Confederacy, they STILL don't know what it is, then there's the Bonnie Blue Flag, then there's the... it goes on and on, 95% don't have a clue.
Best of all, on Cinco de Mayo here in Texas, I fly the "Come and Take It" flag, I thought that'd raise the ire of the libs during all the stupid illegal alien protestations but I don't think that they know what that is either LOL!
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