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.

[TXnMA]

There are other ways to celebrate Southern heritage without using that symbol.

Yes, and, as soon as another medium for memorializing Southern heritage is chosen, you and your ilk will attack its use, as well. (Example: the planned funeral for the recently-recovered bodies of the crew of the H.L. Hunley is already being protested...)

I assure you that the display of the Confederate flag (in the name of free speech) does not distress black people any more than the burning of the U.S. flag (in the name of free speech) distresses most FReepers!

Since when did the Constitution guarantee any of us the right to not be offended?

[dixierose]

OK...there's a fellow who works with me that has a "BUSH KNEW" bumper sticker on his truck. That offends me. Should he be forced to remove the bumper sticker or park off of company property??? Sorry, but that argument doesn't wash. As far as I'm concerned it's his personal vehicle and he can use it to express what he wants, no matter what I think of it. After all...I don't have to ride in his vehicle.

[Sir_Ed]

"Whatever happened to the Golden Rule? It requires one to walk in the other guy's shoes. How do you think seeing someone flying the Confederate flag affects black people?

We may have the right to fly the flag, but that doesn't mean we should do it, or encourage it. In fact, anyone who followed the Golden Rule would discourage it. "

Maybe we shouldn't fly the American flag in Texas, because the Mexicans are probably disturbed at remembering what we did to Santa Ana.

We probably shouldn't fly the American flag in California, either, because California is really Alta California, sister state to Baja California, and by rights should go back to its rightful owners.

Or so your logic would dictate!

Ed

[B4Ranch]

Xenophobe signed up 2003-03-10.

[gcruse]

We may have the right to fly the flag, but that doesn't mean we should do it,

This is true of most of our freedom.  We have the right to live as we choose
as long as we don't exercise it.

[albee]

The woman was using theCOMPANY'S COMPUTER while the Tampa man had a Conederate flag on his PERSONAL truck.

[billbears]

It requires one to walk in the other guy's shoes. How do you think seeing someone flying the Confederate flag affects black people?

For those uneducated of any race, I imagine it offends them. But that's because of their ignorance rather than their race. The documentation of the existence of Black Confederates and Jewish Confederates is well known.

Of course now that article, a C+P from you know who, with Jimmy Mcphernut and the park ranger denying it all. Of course there won't be facts, but I've found liberals don't need facts, they just live off emotion

[JebBush2008]

The woman was using the COMPANY'S COMPUTER while the Tampa man had a Conederate flag on his PERSONAL truck.

Yes, but the Personal Truck was parked on his employers property.

[RightFighter]

The truck may have been parked on his employer's property, but his employer was the City of Tampa, a government agency.

If my employer, a private business, wants to tell me what I can display on my car or what I can wear on my shirt or what music I can listen to in my office, they have every right to do that. However, the City of Tampa has no more right to tell an employee he can't have a certain symbol on his truck than they do to tell the Ku Klux Klan they can't have a parade. I may not personally like it, but that's the way the law has been interpreted. I think Tampa loses on this one.

[Centurion2000]

Slavery was the shame of our nation, and the Confederate flag is too closely associated with that shameful institution to be dissociated in the name of Southern heritage.

The confederate flag flew over slavery for 4-5 years. The US flag flew over it for almost 80.

Which flag do you want to try and ban again ? Slavery was a bad thing yes, but WESTERN Civilization was the first civilization that banned it.

[reelfoot]

Will the same local government prohibit blacks from wearing clothing with a (racist Malcolm) X on it? Will NAACP bumper stickers be prohibited? How about Latino pride insignia? Admit it, one group and one group alone is the only acceptable whipping boy in this PC age: Southerners proud of their Confederate heritage.

[JebBush2008]

OK...there's a fellow who works with me that has a "BUSH KNEW" bumper sticker on his truck. That offends me. Should he be forced to remove the bumper sticker or park off of company property??? Sorry, but that argument doesn't wash. As far as I'm concerned it's his personal vehicle and he can use it to express what he wants, no matter what I think of it. After all...I don't have to ride in his vehicle.

First, I am not here to defend either the man in Tampa or the Woman in Nashville. I see it as a property issue and if your employer or his customers are offended by sights seen on company property it could cost business. For example, I have an employee that I manage that has a "Regime Change Begins at Home" sign in his office and last week before a client visited I asked him to hide the sign. If he had refused to hide the sign I would have taken steps to have him reprimanded. If I had an employee that had pick up truck with a Rebel Flag and bumper stickers that could be considered offensive I would have asked that person to move the truck before the client arrived.

[Consort]

[judgeandjury]

Even if someone is unable to empathize with blacks, the negative impact of that symbol on them is pretty easy to figure out.

Sorry, I can't figure it out. So what is the negative impact of the Confederate symbol on a black person living in the U.S. today?