Some stories are curious on many levels:
Linda Ramirez Sliwinski of Carpentersville, a Chicago suburb, sees two neighbor kids fooling around in a small tree and tells them to stop.
The kids' father tells her to mind her own business. She tells him they shouldn't be climbing a tree like monkeys.
She says she used the word monkeys because monkeys climb in trees, like the kids, and she was concerned they would fall. But the kids are African-American. Their parents say she used the word monkeys as a racial slur.
They call the police.
The police write Sliwinski a ticket because, apparently, the town has an ordinance that makes racial slurs a crime. (First Amendment? Does it apply in Carpentersville?)
A story is written. Sliwinski, it turns out, is an Obama delegate!
Now, she's stepping down, to be replaced by another Obama delegate who hasn't called kids climbing in trees monkeys.
It's all in the Chicago Tribune and its blog.
Comments (1)
The ACLU needs to step up and defend the charge against Ms. Rimirez-Siliwinski. How is calling anyone, black, white, brown, or purple, a monkey disorderly conduct?! Please! Let's hear from some legal experts! I cannot believe this is happening!