Sticker Dad Sues Base
Jesse Nieto doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve.Instead, the retired gunnery sergeant uses car decals to express his contempt for the terrorists who killed his son, Engineman 2nd Class Marc Ian Nieto, along with 16 other sailors in the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen.
But the stickers maligning Islamic terrorism, which have adorned Nieto’s car for more than seven years, were recently deemed “offensive material” under a base order at Camp Lejeune, N.C., where he has worked in the Electrical Distribution Shop since 1994. Military police removed some of the stickers in August, before the base magistrate ordered Nieto to remove the rest. The former infantryman, who served two tours in Vietnam, refused and now he is contesting the order’s legality in federal court.
Claiming a violation of his First and Fifth Amendment rights, Nieto is suing Lejeune’s commander, Col. Richard Flatau, and the base magistrate, Lt. Col. James Hessen. The complaint was filed Nov. 10 in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina.
In an odd twist of justice, a defender of America is now defending his right to free speech. Many Americans forget that free speech also means that you may be offended at some point. It gives us as Americans the right to say you are offended. It does not allow us to arbitrarily deny that right to some one who is not politically correct. Who decides what is offensive? Why is burning the American flag protected as free speech but an anti-Islam bumper sticker is not protected? Isn't that backwards?
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Other Opinions
I certainly hope that this Gentleman's freedom of speech is protected. His bumper stickers may be offensive to some, but I find some of the anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-American, bumper stickers offensive. Does that mean I have a right to not be offended? NO. I fought for the rights of those idiots to express their opinions and this gentleman did too. Good Luck Mr. Nieto.
Is this really a free speech when we are talking about offensive material that Mr Nieto brought to work? Where are the defenders of free speech when a middle-manager is fired because he was hitting on his co-worker? He was just expressing his free speech- so what if it was offensive to someone else right? I mean your job is certainly the best place to exercise your free speech- especially when you work for a tyrannical tool of oppression. But we're too busy bringing these little problems to court rather than the cases that involve exposing abuse of power, corruption, torture, and slavery- all which are rampant in this country.
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