Posted on 07/18/2009 12:30:39 PM PDT by grjr21
The police officer who founded Domelights.com, the Web site that prompted an association of black police officers to sue the Philadelphia Police Department this week, said in a statement posted Thursday night on his site that he never encouraged racist comments.
The officer, who uses the screen name "McQ," also wrote that he was not responsible for what registered users post on the site, and said he had never been asked to remove posts or comments.
The site, which began in 2000 and is not affiliated with the Police Department, is a popular forum where officers discuss crime, police news, and gossip, as well as promote local events.
But racially charged news stories often result in controversial and profane comments. A recent post about the day campers who were disinvited from swimming at a suburban pool, for example, described the children as "a bunch of ghetto monkey faces."
On Wednesday, the Guardian Civic League, an association of black police officers, filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the department of allowing its officers to post "blatantly racist . . . and offensive" content on Domelights. Among other claims, the lawsuit alleges that officers moderate the site using the department's computers, thus creating a racially hostile work environment.
The suit seeks unspecified damages, and asks that officers be banned from using the site or posting racially insensitive material.
McQ is identified in his Domelights profile as Fred McQuiggan, which is the name of a sergeant who works at Police Headquarters. He has not returned requests for comment and stated in Thursday's post that he would not comment directly to the media.
Described on the home page as "the voice of the good guys," Domelights "was created specifically to be a forum where ideas of social change could be freely and openly discussed," McQuiggan wrote in his post.
"I categorically REJECT any racist or sexist ideas expressed on the Web site," the post reads. "But I do SUPPORT the right of people on ALL sides of racial issues to EXPRESS THEIR OPINIONS . . . There is no progress gained on social issues when angry people stew in their own juices while remaining silent."
McQuiggan's post said the site was not actively monitored and that he did not use it at work. The site's terms of service tell users how to report posts they deem offensive, and McQuiggan said he never received any such complaints.
The league's attorney, Brian Mildenberg, said black officers have complained about the site to current and past police administrations.
McQuiggan's post also described Domelights as "just a semi-popular social networking site that is geared towards cops/firefighters. There are THOUSANDS of city employees with blogs, Facebook pages, MySpace pages, Twitter accounts and even Web sites, with ALL kinds of content, offensive and otherwise."
The lawsuit prompted colorful responses on the site. Some people posted statements attacking league president Rochelle Bilal, while others thanked McQuiggan for the site and spoke of how much they had appreciated it over the years.
Early yesterday, McQuiggan posted that he might have to shut down the site because of the lawsuit, but said that should not be taken as an admission of guilt. He signed off with, "Thanks again to everyone who has supported Domelights.com over the past 9+ years."
If I complain to the police about offensive post at DU and then they don't do anything about it can I sue
Paging Jim Thompson!
ping
I heard about this the other day.
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