Former City Worker Sues City of Tampa for Firing Him Over Confederate License Plate

AP ^ | 03/12/2003

[Phlap]

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - A former city worker who was fired for refusing to remove a Confederate flag license plate from his truck is suing the city of Tampa.

In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, Larry A. Carpenter, 47, said his First Amendment right to free speech was violated when he was fired over the dispute.

Carpenter was ordered in January 2002 to remove the license plate or park his truck off city property. He refused to do either, was cited for insubordination and was fired from his job as a traffic maintenance specialist in the Public Works Department.

Carpenter's attorney, J. Benton Stewart II, said his client, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, is proud of his heritage and merely wants the city to develop a written policy that is uniformly applied.

Stewart said other city workers who drive vehicles with bumper stickers bearing political slogans and offensive statements are allowed to park on city property.

Messages left with City Attorney Jim Palermo were not immediately returned. Carpenter declined to comment on the lawsuit Wednesday.

[cyborg]

But what I was most amazed about was the fact that Lincoln, in spite of my early education, was, by today's standards, quite a racist.

* This above all was the biggest shock to me. When I read statements made by Lincoln, I was amazed. I didn't get disillusioned. It made me want to read what other presidents have said. While people like Randall Robinson call Thomas Jefferson the worst names, TJ did more to ensure the future freedom of black people than anyone else, even Lincoln.

[samuel_adams_us]

Yes there were, especially if you were one of the slaves.

[dljordan]

I haven't noticed African-Americans worrying too much about calling European-Americans racists and running us down constantly. I see white hating rappers singing (if you can call it that) about killing whites, cops, raping women and mayhem in general and they get AWARDS for it. Give me a break here while I weep.

[hoosierskypilot]

all Americans, Christianity and humanity

In point of fact, Christianity does not condemn slavery.

Slavery is unAmerican, however. (Unless you count my having to work for six months out of the year just to pay taxes.)

But, inhumane? Not all slave owners mistreated their slaves. Many slaves stayed with their former owners after the war.

But who said anything about the Jews and the holocaust? Yours is a logical fallacy of comparing apples to asphalt shingles.

You need to take a deep breath and repeat after me, "Not everybody is my enemy. Some people actually like me....."

[hoosierskypilot]

What really floored me was when I read that, after slaves were freed, Lincoln actually considered shipping them all back to Africa. But he discounted that idea because the blacks would never survive without our indefinite support!

[cyborg]

Paul Harvey talked about the failed Liberian experiment. That was to send any freed slave back to Africa. Within one generation, they were selling eachother, enslaving eachother, enslaving other Africans, just general mayhem.

I wish things were done the way the British ended slavery in 1834 (?). That is before ending slavery, to educate, civilize and empower the slaves, then end it COMPLETELY. No reconstruction, no bloody revolt. Look at Haiti when they had the violent overthrow of the French. It is a real cesspool of voodooism and poverty, and has the dubious honor of being the poorest nation in the World.

[StolarStorm]

I don't agree with your contention one bit. The advantages/disadvantages to belonging to a racial group depend on where you are and what is going on. In many many cases being black is an advantage.

If I had a black skin I would have gotton a full ride to MIT with my grades. Being white, I didn't have a chance.

If I had a black skin I would have gotton that internship with NASA while a sophmore (I was informed that ONLY minorities were being accepted that year... fact.).

If I had a black skin I wouldn't have been sneered at, jeered and threatened several times in various places (New Orleans, 5th ward Houston, and others) while doing nothing to deserve that behavior.

Frankly, it has been my personal experience that African-Americans are far more racist than whites.

[leadpenny]

I have read only a few of the beginning and ending post. I see you are at both ends. Welcome to FR. Too bad you got off on the wrong foot because you don't have a clue. The fellow had a license plate approved and issued by the State of Florida and backed up by a political system. What is it, again, that you don't understand about our Constitution?

[hoosierskypilot]

I wish things were done........

Well, as long as we're wishing, I wish slaves had never been brought here in the first place. I wish the truly unfortunate souls living in third world countries were not in bondage to unenlightened and repressive governments.

I wish that the rest of the world had the opportunities Americans enjoy, without having to travel thousands of dangerous miles to sneak into our country.

And I wish that America would not rush headlong into destruction by the perpetuation of atheism and humanism.

Of course, if a pig had wings, he could fly.

[cyborg]

You won't get any disagreement from me.

[berserker]

Doesn't prove that all slaves, or even the majority of slaves, were subjected to the form of cruelty in Uncle Tom's Cabin.

No, you're probably right. I'm sure that most of them enjoyed being slaves under the enlightened authority of their Southern masters.

[StolarStorm]

I would have no problem having a black skin.

[Wonder Warthog]

"The question becomes whether the person's need to exercise a given right outweighs the rights of others not to be burdened by the exercise."

The answer is an un-equivocal YES. It's called "free speech", and no matter how offensive someone else finds it, that is a freedom we have. Those "offended" should simply "sit down and shut up". If they want to counter, then let'em fly the "Rainbow Flag" or some other symbol of THEIR ethnicity--in which case it will be MY responsibility to "sit down and shut up". THAT is the "Golden Rule" in this kind of situation.

"It's the generally accepted idea that your rights stop where mine begin."

Only when referring to property or person. "Thought crime" is NOT one of the categories--though not for lack of effort in trying to make them so.

[hoosierskypilot]

Couldn't the same reasoning be applied to those who are 'offended' because of attacks on the use of the Confederate flag?

Excuse me, but I think you're missing a critical point, here. The objection is not to a mere attack on the flag. The objection is to people who say one cannot display that flag.

There is a double standard, here. A gentleman is fired because he has a confederate bumper sticker on his truck. He broke no laws.

Yet, in LA, some liberal street trash can destroy a flag (which flag was erected as a monument to 9/11), in full view of castrated cops, and she simply exercising her freedom of speech.

Where's the equity in that?

You keep saying the attack is on the flag. You're wrong. The attack is on john reb's right to display the flag. And if susie-dope-head-kalifornia-trash can destroy the flag in LA, then certainly john reb can have his bumper sticker.