Phila. City Council Bans Display Of Nooses

[FSTargetDrone]

Banned:

Posted on Thu, Dec. 6, 2007

Council panel OKs ban on displaynig hate symbols

By MARK McDONALD

Philadelphia Daily News

+mcdonam@phillynews.com 215-854-2646

Since Oct. 1, when a white construction worker waved a noose in his face on the 45th floor of the Comcast tower, Paul Solomon Jr. has been, as he told City Council members yesterday, "on the bench."

Out of 45 work days since the incident, the African-American heavy-equipment operator figures he's had five days of work.

"I'm sitting home, and my wife, she's crying and fighting about how we're going to pay bills, and our standard of living is diminishing," said Solomon, quietly sobbing. "It's hurt me to my heart."

Solomon says he's not working because he blew the whistle on the white worker's racial harassment. Now he's been blackballed.

Three weeks after the incident, City Councilman Darrell Clarke introduced legislation that prohibits the display of "symbols of virulent animus: a noose, a burning cross or a swastika" with the "intent to intimidate another person or to incite violence."

Such displays would be banned in workplaces and public places. Yesterday, after Solomon's testimony, the bill sailed through Council's licenses and inspections committee and is poised for final passage on Dec. 13.

When he introduced the bill, Clarke said he fully expected First Amendment questions to arise. Yesterday, they didn't.

But in an interview, Larry Frankel, legislative director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said, "On its face, it sounds like it has some significant First Amendment problems."

He said it's dangerous for the government to regulate the display of symbols. Suppose, he said, that a pro- or anti-death penalty group chose to display a noose as part of its activity. Could someone, he asked, construe its use as an intention to "intimidate another person or to incite violence," as the legislation is written?

But Nick Taliaferro, executive director of the city's Human Relations Commission, said using hate symbols is "psychological terrorism" and that the noose for African-Americans instantly conjures the despicable history of lynching in this country.

Bruce Crawley, a businessman and board member of the Technical Assistance Center for Emerging Contractors, expressed outrage that Solomon has suffered unemployment in the wake of the racial incident.

And he called for stiff penalties and oversight of the construction industry to reduce incidents of racial harassment. The Clarke bill sets penalties of a $1,500 fine and 90 days in jail if found guilty.

Solomon, a 14-year member of Local 542 of the Operating Engineers, said his union representative told him that the contractors at the Comcast site considered him a troublemaker and didn't want him back on the job.

The Daily News could not reach a union spokesman or a spokesman from East Coast Hoist, where Solomon said he worked for about 18 months, for comment.

Meanwhile, Cathie Abookire, spokeswoman for District Attorney Lynne Abraham, said the investigation into the Oct. 1 noose incident had been completed but that "there was insufficient evidence that a crime was committed and so no charges were filed."

Barry Morrison, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, testified in favor of the bill, noting that the FBI released statistics on hate crimes last month and that Philadelphia reported 34 hate crimes, ranking it 16th out of the 50 largest cities.

I hope the guy who was the target of the noose incident gets work again soon. First he gets the noose, now he got the shaft.

[wolveraptor]

Instead of banning symbols, why not create some legislation that would protect workers from being fired for bullshit reasons?

[brianeyci]

That probably already exists, but the problem is your boss can make life a living hell. If you aren't wanted better to move the fuck out and find another job somewhere else than fight the boss and come back where he can fuck you over a billion legal ways.

Sad to say but if you whistleblow, got to be prepared to face the consequences. To a business, the only thing that matters is money. If you join the army reserve and there's a war and they fire you the day before deployment: should see it coming, they will lose massive money so it makes sense for them to fire you. If you blow the whistle on any misconduct in the workplace, be prepared for the coworkers to think you're a rat and maybe not get work.

This is not justification for those actions, but saying that whistleblower legislation might not be effective. The main onus has to be on the whistleblower himself, to make sure he knows what he's getting into, and stay hidden as much as possible. Instead of more laws on the books, which already exist to prevent discrimination and aren't effective because discrimination is fucking hard as shit to prove, maybe many inspectors or investigators, and a 222-TIPS hotline for racism claims.

[FSTargetDrone]

That probably already exists, but the problem is your boss can make life a living hell. If you aren't wanted better to move the fuck out and find another job somewhere else than fight the boss and come back where he can fuck you over a billion legal ways.

The guy with the noose was "banned from the site" but if he was actually fired, that is unclear, so far as I can tell.

Posted on Thu, Dec. 6, 2007

Black worker says complaint cost him jobs

By Jeff Shields

Inquirer Staff Writer

An African American construction worker at the Comcast Center building site said yesterday that he had been blackballed as a "troublemaker" for complaining that a white coworker taunted him with a noose in October.

Paul Solomon, a 14-year member of the International Union of Operating Engineers, told City Council that he had been working full-time before the Oct. 1 incident. Since that job ended, he said, he has worked only five of the last 45 days.

"It seems like I've been put on the bench," he said. "All because I stood up and said something about this noose."

His testimony came at a hearing on a bill introduced by City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke that would outlaw "the display of symbols of racial animus" in the workplace or public spaces. Those symbols include nooses, burning crosses and swastikas. The measure would increase the fine for "ethnic intimidation" from $300 to $1,900 and set a maximum 90-day jail term.

The bill was unanimously passed out of Council's Committee on Licenses and Inspections yesterday and is due for a final Council vote a week from today.

Solomon, testifying on behalf of the bill, said he had been operating a hoist at the Comcast site Oct. 1, transporting workers and materials, when he stopped at the 45th floor to pick up a glass worker. The worker, he said, held up a mini-noose and said: "I want to kill someone."

The incident was regarded as one of many copycat instances of intimidation spurred by the racially charged case of the Jena 6 in Louisiana. It sparked a demonstration at the site in protest of both the alleged incident and the dearth of building-trades jobs for minorities.

The glaziers' union worker accused of waving the noose was banned from the site.

"We really need to make people understand that this is something that won't be condoned," said public relations executive A. Bruce Crawley, one of the city's leading advocates for increased minority hiring in the building trades.

Solomon broke down while speaking about the impact of the recent events, and Council members appeared moved by his testimony.

"In this day and time, for us to be dealing with something like this, frankly, is amazing," Clarke said.

Council members offered to write Solomon's union to determine why he was not working, but privately said they would proceed with caution before they had talked to all sides.

Solomon said he had retained a lawyer and filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Solomon said he had been working a full schedule for East Coast Hoist before Oct. 22, when the hoist was no longer required at the job.

Solomon said one contractor had told a union representative "I was a troublemaker and they didn't want me on their job site."

Officials from East Coast and Local 542 of the International Union of Operating Engineers did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.

Al Fazzini, spokesman for the L.F. Driscoll Co., the construction manager for the Comcast Center, said that the company had issued no directive against hiring Solomon and that he was hired at a Driscoll site as recently as last week.

[brianeyci]

The guy with the noose was "banned from the site" but if he was actually fired, that is unclear, so far as I can tell.

That's the nature of construction work: you are not considered laid off if you take very long breaks, and you don't get unemployment insurance. They can hold the guy in hiatus for as long as they fucking want legally, which is bullshit but that's the way it is.

Construction work is contract so he should have expected serious consequences coming out. A boss can just say, uh yeah, I picked this guy, not you, for no reason at all. This is not to say I don't feel sorry for him, or that I think he should be fired (no duh, he should be a hero.)

Unless he wants to make a statement, which may be important to him, better to get his union to find him work at another construction site. Or better yet, a different company. Those are transferrable skills, he can find work.

[FSTargetDrone]

That's the nature of construction work: you are not considered laid off if you take very long breaks, and you don't get unemployment insurance. They can hold the guy in hiatus for as long as they fucking want legally, which is bullshit but that's the way it is.

Construction work is contract so he should have expected serious consequences coming out. A boss can just say, uh yeah, I picked this guy, not you, for no reason at all. This is not to say I don't feel sorry for him, or that I think he should be fired (no duh, he should be a hero.)

Unless he wants to make a statement, which may be important to him, better to get his union to find him work at another construction site. Or better yet, a different company. Those are transferrable skills, he can find work.

Well, at the end of the 2nd article I stuck in above, it does say that the Solomon (the man confronted with the noose) was hired again:

Al Fazzini, spokesman for the L.F. Driscoll Co., the construction manager for the Comcast Center, said that the company had issued no directive against hiring Solomon and that he was hired at a Driscoll site as recently as last week.

I forgot to bold that. In any case, we'll see. I hadn't heard about anything about a rehiring, other than this article from the 6th and there's been no new news since then on the local newspapers' websites.