Three police officers in Clark Township, New Jersey, are sitting at home collecting their full paychecks despite being suspended since 2020. That’s because one of the police officers allegedly used the word “nigger” to describe a suspect. The officers are accused of making fun of the suspect, a black man, saying that he looks like some sort of monkey.
A “whistleblower,” a fellow cop even, came forward with a recording. As you might imagine, he claimed that he was retaliated against and ended up with a huge payday. That’s probably why he sold his brothers in uniform out for a simple, non-offensive word. “Nigger” is just that: a word. A harmless word that hurts no one.
Daily Mail reported thusly:
“Clark Township Police chief Pedro Matos and Internal Affairs Sergeant Joseph Teston were suspended in 2020 for allegedly being secretly recorded in 2019 using the n-word by whistleblower Lieutenant Antonio Manata.”
The news outlet, if you want to call it that, further reports that Captain Vincent Concina was also suspended for allegedly retaliating against the man, if you can even call him that. If you ask me, Manata deserved whatever, if anything, Concina sent his way. You simply don’t dime out your brethren.
I know of what I speak: I witnessed a child being molested at church and, despite how disgusting that is, I did nothing about it, but more importantly, I did not dime out my brother in Christ. A bro doesn’t rat out another bro. Too bad Manata did not get that memo. If I’d heard the word being used, I would likely have joined the party, but more importantly, I would never report it.
My personal opinion is that Manata knew what he was doing. He knew that if he recorded it and ratted his brethren out, someone would retaliate against him and he knew that that would bring about a huge payday. Clearly, Manata wasn’t offended by the word. He simply wanted a payday. It’s too bad that he thought nothing of selling out two innocent men.
The case has been in limbo for five years now. The three men have filed a lawsuit and rightfully so. They are being victimized for using a simple, harmless word. There should have been no disciplinary acti0n taken against them in the first place. I have no problem with them sitting back and collecting a paycheck because they are the victims in this story.
It’s important to note that no criminal charges were ever pressed against that. Given that, there is no valid reason to keep them on suspension. That story’s going to drag on for a long time because people are dragging their feet. Not even the judge involved wants to make up her mind.
This is a sad story where three harmless, innocent police officers are being given a raw deal. And again, this is all over a word!
So what about the word “nigger” in the first place? No one has ever been hurt by that word. Ever! It comes from the Latin word “niger,” meaning black. Along the way, another “g” was added, giving us the word “nigger.” I suspect that the word “negro” comes into play here. From the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries, the word was used without a problem.
By the eighteenth century, however, the word suddenly became offensive. Never mind the fact that it was originally used to describe someone who is dark-skinned.
In 1885, Mark Twain captioned a drawing in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with “Misto Bradish’s nigger.” Yes, the drawing depicts a black person. So? I refer you back to the Latin word. Twain’s usage offended anyone back then, so why should anyone be offended now?
Remember earlier when I pointed out that no one was ever hurt by the word? Well, that’s not entirely true. The Wikipedia entry for the word “nigger” states thusly:
“In 2021, in Tampa, Florida, a 27-year-old black employee at a Dunkin’ Donuts punched a 77-year-old white customer after the customer had repeatedly called the employee a nigger. The customer fell to the floor and hit his head. Three days later, he died, having suffered a skull fracture and brain contusions.
The employee was arrested and charged with manslaughter. In a plea bargain, the employee pled guilty to felony battery, and was sentenced to two years of house arrest. In 2022, in explaining why the employee did not receive any jail time, Grayson Kamm, a spokesman for Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren, said ‘Two of the primary factors were the aggressive approach the victim took toward the defendant and everyone working with the defendant, and that the victim repeatedly used possibly the most aggressive and offensive term in the English language.'”
In this case, all the victim did was use a word. The black employee became enraged and caused the victim’s death. There was no justification for killing that man. I do not think that the word “nigger” is “aggressive,” nor do I believe that it is “offensive.” It’s just a word. The aggressor was on house arrest for two years. Justice was not done here. First-degree murder would have been more appropriate, with life in prison with no parole as the penalty.
In my opinion, the employee lived up to the word.
Well, now there is case precedent, and that’s scary. Now, a defense attorney can point to that case and will likely that say if someone uses a word that one finds offensive, then that person can intentionally bring about the speaker’s death. So, if you say a word that I find offensive, it looks like I can kill you and get house arrest now that the case has established precedence.
I have to wonder if that employee felt that giving up two years of freedom was worth it. I mean, it was a simple word. And in this case, the word was an accurate depiction of what the attacker was.
It’s beyond my comprehension as to why people are so offended by the word. It’s been in use for centuries after all. I’ve used the word often and I’m not afraid to do so. And that’s not the only word that is considered by many to be racially offensive but is a valid word. I mean, come on now, there’s “spic,” “gook,” “cracker,” “wop,” and so on. All of those words have validity behind them.
The word “wop,” for example, came from “without papers,” when Italian people first came through Ellis Island. The word “gook” came about in the Vietnam War, when Marines came back talking about Vietnamese people who approached them, asking, “mi guk?” They were asking if the Marines were American.
It sounds like “me gook,” so that’s how the word came about to be used as a supposed slur against Asian people. It’s a little off topic, but Jews are often called “kikes.” It’s an accurate word, given that when Jews came through Ellis Island, they were so retarded that they couldn’t even sign their names, so they drew a circle. The Yiddish word for circle is “kikel,” so there you go. Facts, not offensiveness.
I’m not going to discuss the etymology of all of the words that are considered to be racial slurs, but I’m merely pointing out that every “slur” has a valid and accurate usage. These are just words, people. They do not rise to the level of being offensive and none of the words qualifies as hate speech.
None of those words should get anyone punished, suspended or fired. If you don’t like those words, just ignore them and don’t be a whiny little bitch.