The past couple of weeks there's been a lot of racist stuff spewed about. Cliven Bundy and Donald Sterling were in the national news as each of them said specifically racist things about black people. Both have claimed they aren't racist. Donald Sterling is asking for a "second chance." Cliven Bundy is still agitating for a civil war between county Sheriff's and the Federal government.
Locally we have a situation going on as well. A Chico, CA police officer was upset with a city council member who was looking into police pay and benefits. The reason the councilman was doing so is Chico is in serious financial trouble. They've slashed and slashed and fired a bunch of city workers. They need to cut another $7 million this year alone just to break even. After looking at the pay rates for various city employees it's been discovered that Chico has one of the highest pay rates and retirement packages for police officers and fire fighters anywhere in California. The councilman, naturally, created enemies within the ranks of the police simply by looking into their pay.
The upset police officer wrote a very derogatory comment on the councilman's FaceBook page including a nasty term that couldn't be printed in our local newspaper. He also wrote that the councilman was incompetent without giving any reasons for that declarative statement. This all occurred after a heated verbal exchange between the two previously that included name calling in public.
The councilman then went to the police officer's facebook page and discovered very racist and homophobic remarks. He had pictures of President Obama as an African tribal man with a bone stuck through his nose calling him a Kenyan. He had a picture of Obama as Hitler calling him a Nazi. He also had a picture of Obama as the Joker calling him a socialist.
The councilman went to the Chief of Police to talk about it claiming the officer in question "clearly harbored racist views" and it was "unequivocal the officer's postings were racist and homophobic." The Police Chief brushed him off stating, "it's an internal matter," and that was that.
I never cease to be amazed by people who get all their pay, retirement and medical care from pure socialism (citizens pay 100% of their livelihood) who then turn around and complain about socialism. Is socialism just great for them, but not others? This police officer was trained at the Butte College Police Academy, which is a public community college (paid for by socialism) that has a Police Academy as part of it. I truly believe these people literally have no idea what socialism is. They simply must not understand the concept. It's just a word to them. Does no one explain to them all their training and income is paid for by socialistic policies? Derp!
What's so dangerous to them about the ACA which allows us to buy insurance policies from private for-profit insurance companies?
Now the police officer has sued Chico for "defamation and slander." In his lawsuit he say's he's not a racist or homophobic, even though his FB page is loaded with that kind of stuff. Oh no, he's not a racist or homophobic. He's simply exercising his First Amendment Rights to say anything he wants; and he's simply making political statements. He said, "I called a Chico council member an (expletive) on his FaceBook page as a voting citizen."
The police officer's lawyer said, "it's astonishing that anybody who opposes Obama is labeled a racist." "We 100% disagree with that." "The officer was exercising his First Amendment rights as a citizen of Chico, CA and the United States of America."
What makes this case interesting is the police officer is suing Chico for only $25,000. That's it. It looks like his real goal is to publicly humiliate the councilman. He's going to demand a public apology and will receive an undisclosed sum of money as this whole thing will be settled out of court, most likely, with both sides having a gag order placed on them as part of the settlement. This is standard.
The timing of this is what interests me. Back in 2010, the conservatives succeeded in getting our mid-term elections moved up to mid-June from November. They did this to make sure college students would not be able to vote in the mid-terms. The result, as predicted, is to change the Chico City council from an advantage for liberals to an advantage for conservatives. And it worked. SO, our election will happen in about a month. I believe the timing of this suit is to cause the councilman to lose his job. It obviously isn't really about the money, and no one knows if this lawyer is doing it pro bono.
Have we gotten to the point that anyone can say or write anything they want about another's race or sexual preference, no matter how horrible, and it's all just First Amendment Rights? Is saying anything in public or posting racist and homophobic crap online now simply Political Speech and no longer racist? I ask because this has certainly been the meme at the national level as more racists and homophobes have been emboldened by FOX NEWS and the like to claim this stance.
In the lawsuit, the police officer claims he has the right to write anything he wants on the councilman's FaceBook page because the councilman is a public figure. He then states the councilman looked at his FaceBook page and then spoke of what he saw which is illegal because the police officer says he is a private citizen. Is a police officer not a public figure? Is what you post on your FaceBook page private if you are a police officer but not if you're a councilman?
Of course Chico's local paper, which is really conservative, thinks this is all childish. They say what the police officer did was juvenile and that he should use more discretion. However, they are telling the public they should be outraged at the councilman because he's going to cost the taxpayers money to deal with the lawsuit.
As far as I'm concerned the police officer is a public figure and a private citizen. He's paid by taxpayers meaning he has a public job and acts in that capacity. The same is true for the councilman. You can't have it both ways. That's my opinion. The public-private debate should be the same for both of these gentleman.
The police officer believes he has the legal right to publicly say anything he wants and write anything he wants but doesn't believe the councilman has the same legal right. Why? Is he correct? I decided to write about this during the past week. Just this morning Armando wrote a front page diary about this very subject: http://www.dailykos.com/...
What do you think about this issue?
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