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Thou Shalt Not Ridicule The One

An employee of the Borough of Paramus, NJ has been suspended without pay from his job for posting disparaging remarks about President Barack Hussein Obama on his Facebook page. Christopher Petronzio works for the Shade Tree and Parks Commission and volunteers as a fireman. On Monday he posted a greeting saying, "Chris would like to wish everyone a happy James Earl Ray day." James Earl Ray assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Monday was a state and federal holiday in honor of Dr. King.

But what really got him in hot water with his superiors was a picture he photoshopped to show a Kentucky Fried Chicken sign atop the White House. He also took the liberty of giving a shout-out to President Obama using a racially tinged word that freely passes between black men but is apparently unfit for use by anyone else. The Paramus police department has opened an investigation into whether his postings, made on his own time using his personal home computer, constitute a hate crime.

Good grief. If every public employee who ridiculed former President Bush over the past 8 years was suspended from their job there wouldn't be anyone left working in government. Anti-Bush slurs run rampant across the Internet. Although their tastelessness knew no bounds no one envisaged censoring them. We have a long and celebrated history in this country of lampooning political figures. Barry's acolytes need to get with the program; he's not above ridicule, he's not immune to criticism, and no, not everything said about him constitutes a hate crime merely because the person saying it isn't rendered starry-eyed by his munificence.

Posted at 09:20 by Chris Wysocki   []   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |   |   Tweet