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Guy-Uriel Charles comments: Firing of Charlotte city employee over Facebook post highlights First Amendment debate

A City of Charlotte fire investigator is out of a job because of a Facebook post in the aftermath of the Ferguson, Missouri riots. Its the first time a Charlotte city employee has been fired over a posting on social media. An attorney for the investigator says the city overreached.

So what are the First Amendment rights of public employees?

City Manager Ron Carlee says its essential the public is confident that city employees will treat all people with dignity and respect.

He believes Crystal Eschert violated that confidence shortly after police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Eschert is white. She referenced reports of another police shooting near Ferguson that said a white person was the victim. She wrote on her personal Facebook page:

Where is Obama? Where is Holder? Where is Al Sharpton? Where are Trayvon Martin's parents? Where are all the white guy supporters? So WHY is everyone MAKING it a racial issue?!? So tired of hearing its a racial thing. If you are a thug and worthless to society, its not race Youre just a waste no matter what religion, race or sex you are!

Eschert did not identify herself as a Charlotte Fire Department employee, but she was fired in September after someone emailed the post to city officials. Carlee says it was discriminatory and inflammatory.

Guy Charles has a different phrase for it. He co-directs Duke Universitys Center on Law, Race and Politics.

She said something that at best was racially insensitive, but on a public issue on a private page, says Charles. Between the hand that shes holding and the hand that the citys holding, I think Id prefer to have her hand.

If Eschert worked for a private employer, she wouldnt have a free speech case here since the First Amendment only applies to the government. But even though she has that protection, its not absolute.

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Guy-Uriel Charles comments: Firing of Charlotte city employee over Facebook post highlights First Amendment debate

Kerry Kennedy Introduces Hillary Clinton at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Gala, December 16, 2014 – Video


Kerry Kennedy Introduces Hillary Clinton at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Gala, December 16, 2014
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights President Kerry Kennedy introduces former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at the 2014 Ripple of Hope Awards Dinner.

By: Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights

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Kerry Kennedy Introduces Hillary Clinton at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Gala, December 16, 2014 - Video

Underwhelmed by Hillary Clinton: Robert Mann

Regarding the rush to give Hillary Clinton the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, put me down as underwhelmed.

I know she's already the putative nominee. I know she's the strongest candidate the Democrats have against anyone on the Republican side. I know she can raise more money than everyoneelse and knows how to run a national campaign. I know she would have a former president at her side, offering wise counsel.

I know, if elected, she would be uniquely qualified and experienced in the job, the first president who was also first lady. And I know that her nomination and election would make obvious history in other ways.

In the end, it may not matter that anyoneisunderwhelmed by the prospect of President Hillary Clinton. Many observers regard her nomination asinevitable - and she has not even announced her candidacy.

Of course, she seemed to have it all wrapped up in late 2007. She had the money and experience and the right supporters. But there was the small matter of Barack Obama, who ran off with the nomination she thought was hers.

If Clinton is nominated, however, I'll be sad that the Democratic Party missed a historic moment to nominate someone capable of the bold, transformative leadership the nation still needs. Based on her 2008 candidacy and her tenure as secretary of state, there's not much about Clinton that is bold or transformative.

She lost the 2008 nomination in large part because she had supported George W. Bush's disastrous Iraq War. The succeeding years seem not to have taught her much humility when it comes to the use of America's military. She's almost hawkish as ever.

Democrats looking for someone to take on Wall Street and the big banks and fixa corrupt system that is rigged against the little guy might wish to look elsewhere. Nominating a wealthy, powerful former New York senator would be among the last things you would do if you wanted to reformthe nation's financial system.

To me, at least, she embodies the past (and that has nothing to do with her age). She simply exudes "privileged Democratic establishment."

As a candidate, she is wooden in manner and instinctively cautious and guarded. I'm not sure whom she inspires, but it's not me.

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Underwhelmed by Hillary Clinton: Robert Mann

Attorney: Convicted Child Abuser To Invoke 5th Amendment If Asked To Testify In Etan Patz Trial

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) A convicted child molester who was long suspected in the 1979 missing child case of Etan Patz plans to invoke his right against self-incrimination if called to testify in the murder trial of a man now charged with the crime, his lawyer said Friday.

It was not yet clear Friday what questions Jose Ramos might ultimately be asked or have to answer in the trial stemming from Etan Patzs disappearance, or whether theres specific information he doesnt want to divulge. His lawyer, Frank Rothman, would only say that Ramos has no desire to speak to anybody about this.

He plans on invoking whatever Fifth Amendment rights he has, Rothman said, referring to the constitutional provision against self-incrimination.

Former convenience store stock clerk Pedro Hernandez is set to go on trial next month in a case that helped propel the cause of missing children to the fore. Six-year-old Etan disappeared while walking to his Manhattan school bus stop. His body was never found.

Hernandez, 53, has pleaded not guilty to Etan, who vanished while walking to his school bus stop. Patz was one of the first missing children ever pictured on a milk carton. The anniversary of his disappearance became National Missing Childrens Day.

Hernandez became a suspect in 2012 after police got a tip that hed made statements to relatives and acquaintances about having harmed a child in New York years ago. He then gave police a videotaped confession saying he lured the boy into the convenience store basement and choked him.

The Maple Shade, New Jersey, man confessed on video after more than six hours of questioning, telling police he lured Etan to the store basement with the promise of a soda, choked the boy, put the body in a bag and a box and left it on the street several blocks away.

Police and prosecutors found his confession credible. Hernandezs lawyers say he falsely confessed because of mental problems.

No one else has ever been charged, but over the years, other suspects had come under scrutiny especially Ramos, who had been dating Etans baby sitter and who later was convicted of abusing two boys in Pennsylvania.

A former federal prosecutor said Ramos had given him a 90 percent confession in Etans case but stopped short of saying he had killed the boy or that it was definitely Etan _ and two jailhouse snitches said Ramos made admissions to them, though he has since denied involvement. Etans parents pursued a wrongful-death lawsuit against Ramos, and after he stopped cooperating with questioning, a court ruled him responsible.

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Attorney: Convicted Child Abuser To Invoke 5th Amendment If Asked To Testify In Etan Patz Trial

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