Slashdot Mirror
Online Forum Leads To Hostile Workplace Lawsuit
Tiger4 writes "A group of black Philadelphia police officers have filed a lawsuit against the police department and the city, alleging a hostile work environment due to a private website popular with police. Their story has received wide coverage. From CNN: 'The suit alleges white officers post on and moderate the privately operated site, Domelights.com, both on and off the job. Domelights' users "often joke about the racially offensive commentary on the site ... or will mention them in front of black police officers," thus creating "a racially hostile work environment," according to lawyers for the all-black Guardian Civic League, the lead plaintiff in the suit.' The site appears to be owned and operated by a member of the police force, but it is not funded or operated by the city. Management clearly knows it exists; it is possible police force members access it on the job, and the suit says some of them reference it on the job. Individual police force members have a right to their own opinions, but management has a responsibility to enforce the law fairly and equitably across the city and among their own workforce. What is the solution here?"
The problem is, cops tend to be jerks no matter who they are. Heck, you can give anyone power and see that they are jerks especially when given very little oversight (if you don't like the president you can vote them out of office, but the most you can do to a police officer that you don't like is recommend them to have disciplinary action... to another police officer).
And as for racism, everyone is racist to some degree. As evidenced by it we target marketing to certain ethnic groups, fill out ethnic information on census forms, etc.
What really needs to be done is elect police officers on a neighborhood (in larger cities) or town (in smaller cities) basis to make them accountable to the public.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
If you get into the actual facts of the story it is clear, though the summary didn't really touch on it.
At it's heart it's a question of whether a person that runs a bulletin board is responsible for what posters post, a subject of frequent commentary on slashdot.
In point of fact, it would be like calling Commander Taco a racist homophobe because of all the troll spam that's gotten posted here over the years.
Read through my posting history. MOST of my stuff is positively rated. I speak my mind sincerely in almost every case.
I am not racist. I am not bigoted. I am for fair and equitable treatment of ALL people and race and gender isn't even close to being the issue. In fact, most people would agree that the problem of "racism" is largely maintained by those who benefit the most from it and isn't nearly the problem at large that it once was.
Sotomayor is a terrible example, there are/were legions of people yelling racism about her comments.
Colbert did a great bit last week showing Roberts and Alito making vaguely similar comments about their life experience. The Daily Show showed Lindsay Graham making an ass of himself during the Alito hearings, and then doing it later during the Sotomayor hearings.
I don't think she did herself any favors with the remark that she made, but I also tend to think that she was making the remark based on the context of the different life experience that is implied, not based on race itself (the difference in life experience for a minority was probably a bit more significant for someone of her age than it is for someone who is 20).
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
I can relate to that and I'm not even black. I was born in Africa and got my first job in North America as a 'Token Black'. My new employer was rather surprised to see that I was white. Since then, I have on numerous occasions been turned down for a job as soon as the employer learned that I was born in Africa. When I mentioned to a friend that being an African American White causes trouble while job hunting, he said that I have nothing to complain about, since he is an African American White Jew... The only solution to American racism is to start your own company.
OK, here's a part of my past I'd rather forget:
I was a waiter at TGIFridays in '97-'98. I had worked there for a year when a new manager came on duty, I'm 5'10", he's 6'4" and the first day I worked with him he "choked" me to the point where I fell on my knees in front of him in a particularly unnerving way. He had a fairly creepy smile on his face while this was happening. This was a "joke" you see? It was supposed to somehow be funny. I was "lovingly" abused as a child (by a Chicago cop, no less), and I didn't appreciate the "joke". I told the General Manager about it, including my own abuse, as if he'd somehow understand. I was told that they'd keep an eye on it and if anything else happened with this manager, that I should let the GM know.
This manager continued to be an idiot, and completely inappropriate; but not in a way that would cost him his job.
A few months later I left TGIF to work at my first DOTcom, a short-lived PeaPod competitor called OnCart(later changed to ShoppersExpress). Within about 8 months they closed their doors for good and it was back to waiting tables... at Fridays(mental images of Chad Lowe giving you the finger are common)...
Within ONE week this old nemesis of mine, the manager "Jeff", came walking-up to me on a Saturday lunch. I was at the POS entering an order when he said "Hey Bobby, let me show you what's been going on since you've been gone" and proceeds to punch me in the nuts. In the middle of the restaurant, in the middle of lunch. (apparently punching each other in the nuts is a joke)
I immediately yelled "What the FUCK?!" and had to go into the bathroom to puke. I went to the doctor and had a fucking lump on my nuts from where he hit me. Considering the history, and his creepy closet issues, this was set to be the first male v male sexual harrasment suit in IL. I never followed through with the suit, but i should have.
I know I've omitted several points, making this less than cohesive; but what happened shouldn't have, and there should have been a court decision to compensate me for my loss (couldn't work there anymore).
put the what in the where?
Reading your post I thought of an interesting situation. Since the site is obviously not overtly racist, is it against the rules for an officer to read any site that might contain racist material in the comments? If so Slashdot would be banned from tons of work places. Being a member of a site that has a few racist assholes, does not make you one of them. On the other hand, participation during work in these discussions ought to be punished. If it can be proven of course.
I find it ironic that the random quote at the bottom when I viewed this page read, "'Laugh while you can, monkey-boy.' -- Dr. Emilio Lizardo."
On another note, I'm not convinced that the quote from "McQ" was intended as a racist, offensive statement. It seemed more like an attempt to tactfully discuss a racial issue. He was not making a generalization about minorities, and his statement about many people of minority groups frequently not having the same resources as whites can be backed up by census data. If anything, he was trying to defend minorities. There is definitely a difference between this comment and the "ghetto monkey faces" comment.
However, this was taken out-of-context, and for all I know, the guy could be a complete asshole. I also realize that patronizing minorities is just as racist as making fun of them.
Let me preface this with the fact that I've lived in Philadelphia---not the suburbs---for the past 15 years.
While I don't like racism in general, it's hard to live in the city and not slowly become accustomed to not wanting to deal with blacks in any capacity. It's not just the criminal element; yes, the several friends of mine, which have been mugged, have been mugged by blacks; yes, I caught a black man trying to steal my bike today. It's more the quality of life issues.
As general nuisances go, I have yet to meet an aggressive panhandler that isn't black. (No, I cannot "spare" you 80 cents for your fake asthmatic daughter so that you can finally buy a replacement inhaler for that one you found on the ground!) As drivers, blacks are, without question, the most needlessly aggressive drivers in the city---hostile to anything that is in their path. As retail clerks, they provide the rudest, slowest and most unhelpful service possible. As children, the vandalize every square inch of public space with tags, damage property, commit petty thefts, and drain fire-hydrants. As neighbors, they're loud and don't maintain their property. On the trains and buses, they gab away in the most inane conversations on their cellphones at volumes that guarantee that everyone knows about their hot date or, even worse, they play music on their phones without headphones . As police officers, I hope it's not an emergency.
When I came to the city, white liberal guilt would have prevented me from even thinking any of the proceeding factoids. Now, it is the prosaic and inescapable fact of everyday life. Yes, I have black friends and they don't like black people either for more-or-less the same reasons. I'm not advocating a return to Jim Crow era race laws; I am advocating that certain aspects of black culture that put it at odds with a civil, functioning society.
You're allowed to hold any idiot opinion you want in the USA. You are not allowed to express it on the job.
And yet, somehow, everyone feels free to diss members of my minority group.
-Phil the middle-aged, straight, white, male, Republican, conservative, evangelical Christian