Court Upholds City Firings Over Racial Insult at Parade

"At issue in the case was whether the city had dismissed the police officer, Joseph Locurto, and the two firefighters, Jonathan Walters and Robert Steiner, because it deemed their actions distasteful or because they posed a threat of disruption. In the parade, through the mostly white Broad Channel neighborhood, the men rode a float labeled "Black to the Future: Broad Channel 2098," which featured buckets of fried chicken on the hood of a flatbed truck. Mr. Walters re-enacted the killing of James Byrd Jr., a black man who was dragged to his death behind a pickup truck in Texas." http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/28/nyregion/28float.html?_r=1&oref=slogin


3 whites indicted in dragging death of black man in Texas
http://www.cnn.com/US/9807/06/dragging.death.02/ "Investigators believe that Byrd, 49, accepted a ride from the suspects as he walked home from a niece's bridal shower. But police believe that instead of taking him home, the men drove Byrd to a wooded area, beat him, chained him behind Berry's truck and sped down a bumpy road just east of town.Byrd's severed head, neck and right arm were discovered about a mile from where his shredded torso was dumped. A trail of blood, body parts and personal effects stretched for two miles, police said."

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