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
How would you feel about graphic porno billboards, or a truck airbrushed with an images of triple penetration on it's hood sides and back? Is the offensive in the eye of the beholder or is offensive just plain offensive to some but not all?
What we are talking baout here is a banner used by the democrats to terrorize masses of people, in fact used by democrats to terrorize an entire race of people in this country and one that is still being used by democrats to terrorize those same people today.
Are you willing to allow them that tool of terror to force those people to vote democrat so that you can honor the dead of rebellious democrats that tried to tear the nation apart?
Sure he was denied his rights. He was doing nothing improper during working hours. THE PLATE WAS ON HIS CAR!!!.
The PC crowd has got to be relentlessly fought for everything. Not even the slightest affront to freedom of expression should be tolerated from them. And they should be forced to shell out BEG bucks.
On second thought, I don't think you know anything.
One word:Tariffs.
I will prove this and other points tonight.
"Instead I've reached the conclusion that the only ones that have a right to defend it are those that have most recently used it in their political terror plans or in otherwords, the Democrats."
Who is engaged in a political terror plan? Some redneck with a confederate flag on his truck? You should like Shillary, are you afraid of the vast confederate conspiracy? Recently is when, 40 years ago?
"Those democrat sons of the south that died for it are long dead and buried, empty memories and their voices stilled by the very passage of time."
So are those who died fighting for the American Flag.
"As republicans You honor men that if the civil war were being fought today would gladly kill you for holding your views, that's a bitter pill to swallow, I know but it is more true then any of you will ever admit to."
The civil war would not be fought today. So the rest of that is just gibberish. Besides, I would be living in Indian territory, so I would just find me a cute little Indian and stay out of it.
The courts have ruled on the side of free speech as the piece has stated the following: " 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."
That's exactly why the $4500 is the least of the city's problems, and why this case is far from over. And now the city has admitted in court what their policy is. Now that the civil complaint is settled, it's time for the criminal charges:
United States Code, U.S Criminal Code, Title 18, Section 242:
Deprivation of rights under color of law
Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
Section 241: Conspiracy against rights
If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured
They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
NOW it gets interesting.
If the blacks can have their heritage why can't Southerners? There were BlACK free men who fought on the SIDE of the CONFEDERACY! I am sick, sick, sick of the Confederate Flag being bashed!!
I'm going to defend my Southern heritage regardless of what anyone says. I don't know why it's so hard to understand that the War Between the States was fought over States Rights. Many Southerners were too poor to own slaves, so to claim the war was just over slavery is nothing more than "revisionist" history being served up. We're getting the same thing today from the MSM...framing things the way they want it to be rather than what it is. My husband's grandmother's father lost his arm during the war, and if anyone referred to it as the "Civil War" in her presence, she would quickly tell you 'there was nothing civil about it...it was the War Between the States.'
So if you draw an obscene phrase, or racist phrase, on your car and then park it ast your place of business, everyone just has to live with that?
I didn't see in the article where the courts ruled in his favor. I saw where he reached a settlement with the city. He got a paltry $4,500, which probably didn't cover the cost he incurred in bringing the suit.
He can show all the Confederate flags he wants on his own time. But in my opinion when he parks in the city lot, at (presumably) taxpayer expense, the city can ask him to take off the flag if they want him to.
During the civil war, Union general McClellan ran against Lincoln for US president AS a democrat. (The Union means "The North", since you sound ignorant). Please don't attempt to revise the war as a battle against the democrats, who had plenty of support in the union during the war, unless you think that the Union's top general counldn't figure out something you have.
Some feel the Christian cross is a tool of terror as well. Like those who are upset by the confederate flag, they can go pound sand.
From answers.com
And its people like yourself who will lay down for the crap and let Big Brother walk all over your civil liberties. I say that the man was right in taking a stand. It isn't a relic from the 1800's as it still has meaning to non-PC Southerners.
While we're at it, here's the First Amendment -
But perhaps you'd like to see an amendment thrown in there about "unless its some white Southern dude who displays a Confederate Battle Flag that some people view as offensive."
And I quote "Today, many scholars tend to view First Amendment rights as fundamentally minority rights - the rights of unpopular individuals or groups to speak out against a hostile and repressive majority." - The Bill of Rights Primer, Amar and Adams, copyright 2002.
Sounds to me like we should be thanking the guy for standing up against "the PC establishment" for his right to free speech.
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