Chester Co firefighter suspended w/o pay for American flag decal your help requested

[WhiteFeather]

I got this email today 10-18-09 from Angela, IF anyone is from chester county and can help out this Vet and firefighter here is the info.

James Krapf, a firefighter AND veteran, was suspended without pay on Thursday of this past
week for refusing to remove an American flag decal from his station locker
after a new policy was implemented banning anything on the outside of
lockers so people wouldn't be offended. The flag is in NO way offensive, in
my view, and this is an outrage. The story has been covered in papers around
the country, and here is a short video clip from a local TV station:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=516_1255832002

I am trying to get people to come to the Chester fire station to show
support, at 9 am tomorrow, as the hearing is at 10 am. I know it's short
notice, but the hearing time was just confirmed. Address for the
firestation:
Chester Fire Station #2 (82)
320 East 14th Street
Chester, PA 19013
610-447-7842

The station is gladly taking calls of support, they stand behind Jim Krapf
totally. You can call them now.

Fire Commissioner James Johnson, who suspended Jim Krapf can be reached at
jjohnson@chestercity.com
610-477-7765 x 103. You can leave a voicemail for him now, or call him in
the morning.

The mayor of Chester is Wendell Butler, and he can be reached at
610-447-7700.

I'm hoping people can take a personal day and join me at the fire station at
9 am on 10-19-09. If they can't perhaps they have friends/family who can.

Thank you for your help!

I can understand why they don't want anything offensive on the outside of a locker, but an american flag decal, in america they got to be kidding?

If this Vet is willing lose he paycheck and to risk his job to defend the American flag, shouldn’t we do no less to defend this guy that standing up for his principles and ours?

[Al-Mumit]

a new policy was implemented banning anything on the outside of
lockers

Sounds like a clear-cut rule to me.

[1861]

I saw that on Fox news today .

[uniballin]

Sounds like a clear-cut rule to me.

Zero tolerance laws/rules are pretty silly.

I guess you agree that the administrators were right in suspending that Eagle Scout from school for having a 2 inch knife in his survival kit?

[Driver400]

While I don't agree with it, and I think it is pretty low and a scumbag thing to enforce, it is their rule and their property. It would be another issue if others had stickers on their lockers and they were singleing out the American flag, but it appears that it is an "across the board" rule and no stickers are allowed of any kind. But I agree it does suck.

[mjfletcher]

Zero tolerance laws/rules are pretty silly.

I guess you agree that the administrators were right in suspending that Eagle Scout from school for having a 2 inch knife in his survival kit?

Well here goes.

Zero tolerance rules serve their purpose, I don't agree with the results of them most of the time, but in a choice of zero tolerance or having the outcome of every incident dependent on the personal opinion of the individual making the decision I'll take zero tolerance.

ie: In this situation if the rule was "no offensive items on the outside of the locker" just who would be deciding what's offensive? What offends one person may not offend another, one supervisor may agree that someones honestly offended by something while another may believe they're just trying to create drama. Today a gadsden flag may be deemed perfectly fine by a supervisor who supports small government and states rights, tomorrow it may be considered offensive by a supervisor who's all for big government.

Zero tolerance means Zero ambiguity, this is the rule and this is the punishment.

In order to avoid the possibility of someone being offended by something on the outside of a locker the rule is nothing at all is permitted on the outside of the lockers, he broke the rule he has to face the consequences..

The author of the controversy is playing on an emotional reaction by claiming the flag was deemed offensive which anyone who can read can see is not the case. A rule put in place to avoid the issue of offensive items on lockers does not mean everything put on the lockers is offensive. Someone being suspended for violating the rule does not mean the item on the locker was deemed offensive. The author of the controversy is attempting to get a special exception made for someone who chose to ignore the rules.

[1861]

Zero tolerance = zero common sense .

[Philbert]

If the OP is correct, this is not an example of "zero tolerance" in the same way that the schools apply it. By my reading of the OP, here's what happened:

Boss: Please remove all stickers from the outside of lockers
Worker: Make me
Boss: You're suspended

If it was a "zero-tolerance" rule, here's what would have happened:

Boss: ::gasp:: A sticker on a locker?! YOU'RE FIRED!
Worker: Sorry I forgot about the rule, I'll remove it right--
Boss: FIRED I SAY! BEGONE FROM HERE!

[Kurt_M]

I've got to agree with mjfletcher here. The flag wasn't singled out, it was an across-the-board ban the firefighter chose to ignore. It's being opportunistically exploited for an agenda, a tactic our ideological enemies employ all the time. It doesn't suddenly become a good thing when we do it.

[WhiteFeather]

Here is the email I sent also notice in video link below the size of the flag.

To: jjohnson@chestercity.com
Date: sunday, October 18, 2009

Fire Commissioner James Johnson


When I first heard about this story, I thought it was a internet hoax, really someone would consider a plain American flag decal be offensive, in America no less?


Well after investigating and watching the video, sadly I found out that it was true.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?se...0&rss=rss-wpvi

When someone in a leadership can’t make a decision as to what is proper or is not proper in a professional work place and have to rely on just a “policy”, then they are not really needed in a leadership position. All that is required is a larger policy manual, because common sense or someone to make decisions is not required with blanket policies.


The symbols of our nation should not be lowered to graffiti level status when making policy for government employees. Hateful or hurtful messages have no place at any workplace in this country, no one would support that in any form; the American flag are you serious?

Next are we going to remove the American flag from everyone’s uniforms and fire trucks because someone “may” be offended by it?


Blanket policies have no place in a free country & only serve to eliminate the responsibility of you in a position of authority from holding individuals accountable for their actions.


You really should reconsider your position, IF you in a leadership position can’t tell the difference from hurtful message and approximately 2”x3” American flag decal on a locker are not willing to support the symbols of our country that our soldiers, police, firefighters proudly wear and are covered under when they are killed in the line of duty wearing that same flag. Maybe the policy needs to changed and or modified or someone else should be in that leadership position that knows the difference to what is a hurtful message and the proud symbol of our country.


The flag is a symbol of our Republic, its not graffiti or an obscene message.


Please consider finding another way or an exception.




Additionally, I want to thank your son and you for the service to our country.

This blanket “zero weapon policy” is the same silly BS that sends young children home with suspension because they use chicken fingers and go bang at lunch, sends a children home that draw a picture of their dad in the military with a gun, “zero weapons policy”.

It’s this the same kind of BS “policy” that people in authority are always trying to pull to take your rights always, especially your firearm rights, no firearms in parks policy, no firearms in public buildings policy on and on it goes.

“We have a policy _____ fill in the blank, acting just like it’s a LAW is where this always goes, why do we tolerate this BS.

We have a policy so we don’t get sued is a reason, not the reason.

WE can agree to disagree on this one IF you want, I am not going down the roadway with calling the American flag = graffiti, IF you want to go ahead sooner or later you will find one of these created “policy” that pings your rights, its only a matter of time.