Durham probes police comments on Obama

[sabra]

Source: Newsobserver

DURHAM - Internal police investigators are looking into whether a number of Durham officers posted derogatory remarks about President-elect Obama on their MySpace pages.

"There's no exact words that were said," Police Chief Jose L. Lopez Sr. said from San Diego, where he is attending the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference. "It wasn't a racial slur, but we're still investigating it."

Investigators are looking into the context of what was written. Lopez wouldn't say what was written or how many officers are being investigated.

Police officials have been looking into the allegations since Thursday after a department employee complained about the remarks.

Lopez said even though the remarks were made on a personal Web page, the comments could be a violation of department policy.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/durham/durham/story/1291746.html

[galileoreloaded]

1. All your thoughts are belong to us!!;

[yellowcanine]

2. If they identifed themselves as police officers what they say on a personal "MySpace" page may

indeed be the business of their employers. Just like if I write a LTTE and sign it using my official work title, my employer has the right to review that letter and see if it is in line with their policies. And if was posted it was not just a thought.

[DarthDem]

5. What Yellow Canine Said

It they identified themselves as police officers, than the PD sure does have a right to investigate what they said, and probably an obligation. Moreover, the kind of stupidity it takes to be a police officer and then put stuff on your MySpace/Facebook page that calls your ability to perform you job duties is pretty mindblowing. I don't detect any whiff of fascism about this, actually.

[Rebubula]

3. I may be old...

...but I simply do not understand the attraction of MySpace or Facebook.

Moreover, I do not understand how people can be so insanely dumb...

[RJ Connors]

6. Yes, then you are old -

But don't feel alone as I don't get it either but my daughter is enthralled with it. Which has recently ended up in being a problem.

And don't forget Albert Einstein's famous quote:

"There are only two things of which I am certain of.

The infinite nature of the universe and
Man's unending capacity for stupidity.

But quite honestly, I not really sure about the first one".

[BluePatriot21]

4. being old is a positive!

dagnabbit you are not old, but mature and intelligent. Stop using old and use mature!

But really facebook is a way to stay in contact with friends, make new friends and at the same time put all your personal information in one place so the government can spy on you, businesses can track your habits etc. In essence it makes it easier for them to arrest you once they got their fascist state in place, it's over though since Obama won last week, phew! Keep on facebooking!

[benjaminwright]

7. Employer's dilemma

From the point of view of an employer (like the Durham Police Dept.), social networking is tricky. On the one hand, sites like Myspace promote camaradarie. On the other hand, they can foster abuse, which the employer needs to block. --Ben

[tinymontgomery]

8. In Charlotte a few teachers

are now in trouble, suspended/fired, for comments and pictures put on those sites. If your going to put something there I guess you need to hit not for public viewing.