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Editorial: The bigots win

By The TimesLedger

Last week a federal judge ruled that the city was wrong when it fired two firefighters and a police officer for riding on a racist float during the 1998 Broad Channel Labor Day Parade. The judge said the three men could not be punished for exercising their constitutional right to free speech, even if their speech was offensive.

The float called “Black to the Future” re-enacted the killing of James Byrd , a black man who was chained to the back of pickup truck and dragged to his death in Jasper, Texas, earlier that year. That horrific murder shocked the nation — except for a few goofballs in Queens. It is fair to question the character of anyone who saw something funny in the killing of Mr. Byrd.

While we hesitate to question the judge's application of the First Amendment, we believe the city has every right to set high standards for the character of the men and women who would take their place among the Bravest and the Finest. While speech may be free, it is also a window to a person's character.

It may be that the three men in question are not racists. But on Labor Day 1998, when they donned black face and Afro wigs and made fun of the brutal killing of a young black man, they acted like bigots.