Perhaps the @zucottipark Twitter AQ Expert Would Care to Dazzle Mr. Nieto With His Mad Math Skilz
(Now, this all went down this past April, but it’s the first I’d heard of it and I thought maybe you, too.)
Judge Reverses Marine Commander’s Ban of Anti-terrorist Decals
ANN ARBOR, MI – Jesse Nieto is one of those many unsung patriotic Americans. He served 25 years in the Marine Corps, including two combat tours in Vietnam. His youngest son, Marc, and 16 of Marc’s shipmates were killed on October 12, 2000, by Islamic terrorists who bombed the USS Cole. Nieto has worked as a civilian employee at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina since 1994.
Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Malcolm J. Howard delivered good news to Mr. Nieto. He ruled that Camp Lejeune officials violated his free speech rights when they ordered him to remove decals attacking Muslim terrorists from his vehicle. Judge Howard enjoined Marine officials from further enforcing the ban against Nieto. (Click here to read decision)
The rest of the story on political correctness run amuck follows.
Beginning in 2001, to show his anger toward the Muslim terrorists who killed his son, Nieto displayed various decals on his vehicle expressing anti-terrorist sentiments, such as “Remember the Cole, 12 Oct 2000,” “Islam=Terrorism,” and “We Died, They Rejoiced.” Based on a complaint from a Marine who is married to a Muslim, on July 31, 2008, two military police officers (MPs) issued Nieto a ticket for displaying “offensive material.”
After Nieto refused to remove the “offending” decals from his vehicle, the Base Magistrate issued Nieto a written order, ordering him to remove his vehicle from the base until all decals were removed and banning his vehicle from all other federal installations.
The order in effect prevented Nieto from driving his vehicle to Arlington National Cemetery (a federal installation) to visit the grave marker of his fallen son…
Somehow they don’t seem very inflammatory to me ~ you certainly can’t debate the veracity of the statements ~ and I’ve seen far ruder, more offensive things come out of, say, your average Democrat’s mouth about fellow Congressmen or American taxpayers, or any MSNBC broadcast, could you stomach one. (Nieto did agree to “remove some of them including one showing the cartoon character Calvin urinating on Muhammad’s head, records say.” I might have fought hard for that one, but, then again, Calvin IS copyrighted material…) I found @zucottipark’s Tweet far more offensive, because it equated and exploited the slaughter of all those innocent Americans by REAL terrorists (who would slice his smug little smile from his face, if given half a chance) to his phantom foreclosure bad guys. And it’s maddening he can’t comprehend that. And that, no, B of A/Wells Fargo/et al is really not an appropriate comparison for your purposes, douche. **sigh**
This man lost his son. I’m glad he gets to keep his bumper stickers.
I remember going through something quite similar to this in either the 70’s or the 80’s. The military has no right to limit free speech of civilians. For people in the military it becomes a matter of discipline and order, but they have no such control over civilians, especially those not in their employ.
He did work ON base, though, Skyler. So I’m assuming it was a base sticker/employment issue. Just as glad the CG got told to blow it out his ass.
Oh, even better! He was an employee.
And the JAG’s doing the defense really screwed up and were embarrassingly scolded for not even addressing the correct cause of action in their motion to dismiss. A 1L should have done better than that!
And copious buckets of embarassment ~ I mean, with the poor guy’s son being a Cole victim? Dear God ~ what a PR NIGHTMARE they brought on themselves.
Nice opinion. Judge was thorough and concise and came to a very good conclusion. It would seem that even people in the military are having their 1st Amendment rights protected in Camp Lejeune now. It makes me want to put a big Islam=Terrorism sticker on my car and drive to North Carolina!
Oh, you sly little agitator, you!
It may not be proper for an ex-Army twelve bang bang to say this, but that Marine flag officer and staff are a bunch of jerks. I’m glad to see Mr. Nieto won.