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.

[samuel_adams_us]

GW gave most of his slaves freedom upon his death also from what I remember, he may have owned them but he didn't treat them like dirt.

[samuel_adams_us]

I see you know about the gore family

[JebBush2008]

go ahead. I'll keep mine flying high. If you got a problem with that....tough sh#*!

And Skinheads in Germany say the same thing about the Nazi Flag.

Memo to Godebert: The South Lost the War!

[Old Professer]

Xenophobe? Funny, you sound more like a Xenophile to me.

"Fess up; you're just here to stir up trouble, right?

[Polybius]

Do you personally limit your expressions in any way, with respect to other people (symbols are merely a form of expression).

That depends on whether I agree that the symbol has the meaning that the person that claims to be insulted attributes to it.

Some people claim that the Star of David is a symbol of "racist Zionism" and that it is justified to equate the Star of David with the Nazi swastika. I don't accept that.

Some people claim that "the American flag is a symbol of oppression and hatred, not patriotism and freedom". I don't accept that.

Some people, you being one of them, claim that the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia is a "symbol of slavery and racism". I don't accept that either.

[Old Professer]

I was using "slight" in the social sense - to slight someone is to purposely ignore them or publically insult them.

[Godebert]

" And Skinheads in Germany say the same thing about the Nazi Flag."

So....you're calling me a Nazi? I'd bet a hundred bucks you wouldn't have the guts to say that to my face. Where do you live? Maybe we're in driving distance and could meet face to face? You up for it? Or are you just a gutless liberal panty-waist punk with a big mouth?

[Old Professer]

GW gave most of his slaves freedom upon his death

What did he do with the rest of them, take them with him?

[JebBush2008]

So....you're calling me a Nazi? I'd bet a hundred bucks you wouldn't have the guts to say that to my face. Where do you live? Maybe we're in driving distance and could meet face to face? You up for it? Or are you just a gutless liberal panty-waist punk with a big mouth?

Well no, but if you can only threaten to resort to violence to defend yourself you are probably not up to the intellectual level of my Southern Ancestors. My Southern Ancestors understood that they lost the war and understood the repercussions of losing the war. Most people in Germany and Japan understood the repercussions of losing WWII and I hope that the people and Iraq have the intellectual capacity to understand that they lost the war with the US and do not continue to honor Saddam.

[Rebelbase]

.

[Arkinsaw]

More equal? In what sense?

In the sense that the flag stands for the Confederate soldier who carried it on the battlefield as opposed to a political flag. Thats what it stands for to me.

My perception of it is no more and NO LESS important than someone elses perception. We would be much better off if we judged based on the attitudes of the person flying the flag than on the cloth itself which has different meanings for different people. You lump me in with a pro-segregationist from 1957 when you do that. Its not true.

Judging the flag is designed to divide and stifle any concept that their can be multiple meanings for the same object.

Guns don't kill, people do. Flags don't hate, people do.

[Godebert]

" Well no, but if you can only threaten to resort to violence to defend yourself you are probably not up to the intellectual level of my Southern Ancestors. My Southern Ancestors understood that they lost the war and understood the repercussions of losing the war. Most people in Germany and Japan understood the repercussions of losing WWII and I hope that the people and Iraq have the intellectual capacity to understand that they lost the war with the US and do not continue to honor Saddam."

You're not fooling anyone. At least not fooling any Southerners. There is no way you could even remotely be considered a Southerner. No Southerner would willingly call his Confederate ancestors "Nazis". And any true Southerner would kick your pansy ass for saying such a thing.

And you can be damn sure that any true Southerner reading your bullcr#p knows you are not only a liar......but a COWARD.

[JebBush2008]

What part of losing a War do you not understand?

[Rebelbase]

Anyone know the name of the FReeper who had an ancestor that was impressed as a slave by the British Navy in the early 1800's?

I remember reading about him being really pissed whenever he looks at a Union Jack.

[Godebert]

Is that all you got? You've been proven as a liar and a Coward. Have you no self-respect?

[Godebert]

What....you his boyfriend? I noticed you signed up 48 hours ago. I smell marxist puke. You won't be around long....boy.