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View Full Version : More muzzling from the anti-discrimination crowd.



Abbey Marie
02-09-2007, 04:14 PM
So, HR commission, which specific group is Mr. Vento discriminating against?


Posted on Fri, Feb. 09, 2007
Stakes get higher for Geno'sThe steak shop's "speak English" sign is discriminatory, a city panel says. A law firm is coming to owner Joey Vento's aid.
By Andrew Maykuth
Inquirer Staff Writer

The highly charged dispute over the speak-English sign at Geno's Steaks is about to heat up.

The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations notified Geno's owner Joey Vento this week that it had found probable cause that his sign urging patrons to order in English is discriminatory. The next step is to schedule a hearing to settle the dispute or to escalate the charges against the owner of the South Philadelphia sandwich stand.

Vento, who argues that the sign expresses opinions protected by the First Amendment, has enlisted the support of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a conservative public-interest law firm in Atlanta that last year won a settlement for an Ohio bar owner who faced similar charges.

"I'm shocked the city is pursuing this," said Albert G. Weiss, Vento's attorney in Philadelphia. "You'd think they have more important things to deal with."

National news coverage last summer of the controversy brought an outpouring of support for Vento. Weiss said Vento will refuse to remove the sign in his Ninth Street shop that features an American flag and an eagle with the statement: "This is America. When ordering, please speak English."

Vento says he has never actually denied service to any patrons who were unable to communicate in English, and so, he contends, he can't be prosecuted for discrimination.

The Human Rights Commission apparently is alleging Vento violated a section of the city's Fair Practices Ordinance that prohibits the owner of a public accommodation from putting up a sign aimed at "any specific group" to make its members feel discriminated against or unwelcome.

"A lot hinges on perception," said W. Nick Taliaferro, executive director of the commission.

The Southeastern Legal Foundation last year championed a similar cause in Mason, Ohio, where bar owner Tom Ullum was cited by the Ohio Civil Rights Commission for posting a sign that stated: "For Service, Speak English."

The Ohio case went to a hearing in the state capital before the commission dismissed the charges when the complainant dropped her objections, said Todd G. Young, a spokesman for the legal foundation.

Ullum, 65, said in a telephone interview that the case was settled only when he agreed to remove the sign and replaced it with a less objectionable one that did not make it appear that service would be denied to non-English speakers. The new sign reads: "Here We Speak English."

"I finally got fed up with it and signed the damn thing," Ullum said of the settlement.

"It's just a bunch of political stuff," said the bar owner, who said he frequently posts signs expressing his conservative political opinions. "We're just a local blue-collar bar, that's all."

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/16657337.htm

Insein
02-09-2007, 04:17 PM
He's a private business. He should be able to put up a sign that says "I hate niggers" without any retribution from the fucking government. God i hate these fucking liberal ass city governments that wipe there ass with the constitution when it comes to free speech.

darin
02-09-2007, 04:22 PM
Proof The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations is compiled of Ninnies. :(

This world is going the way it was before Noah - easily.

stephanie
02-09-2007, 04:25 PM
He's a private business. He should be able to put up a sign that says "I hate niggers" without any retribution from the fucking government. God i hate these fucking liberal ass city governments that wipe there ass with the constitution when it comes to free speech.

I hope Gino sticks with this fight...This will show the other people in Phlly just how their government is attacking their rights....

:2up:

Pale Rider
02-09-2007, 05:03 PM
So if I write:

Press 1 if you speak english
Press 2 to disconnect until you can

... some fucking government official is going to contact the board here and tell me I have to delete that???!!!

FUCK YOU!!!

Norse_soul
02-09-2007, 05:14 PM
It's kind of like calling up a business and hearing, For english press 1, for spanish press 2

It's bullshit. If you can't speak english, get the fuck out. I'm so sick and tired of everyone bending over backwards for the 'minority', it's not a minority when it's a fucking plague. If you move to germany...guess what, better learn to speak german. If you move to rural Mexico, what do you think would happen if you couldn't speak Mexican....or worse, demanded that they speak english so you could understand them in 'their' country! LIKE A FART IN CHURCH, that's how well you would be recieved. Yet they fucking expect us to bend over backwards to accomodate them? And people in this country back them up?

SUCK MY DICK AND JUMP BACK OVER THE FENCE!

Hell, it's getting to the point where you have to request a translator who speaks english, at a restaurant, in our own fucking country...
I think it is perfectly acceptable for this guy to request that patrons speak his native language, in his Privately owned Business, in his native country...

Pale Rider
02-09-2007, 10:41 PM
I think it is perfectly acceptable for this guy to request that patrons speak his native language, in his Privately owned Business, in his native country...

I couldn't have said it better myself. :clap: :rock: :beer:

TheSage
02-09-2007, 10:49 PM
Proof The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations is compiled of Ninnies. :(

This world is going the way it was before Noah - easily.

Yeah. ANd definitely going the way it was before jesus. You remember him, right?

Hugh Lincoln
02-10-2007, 08:13 AM
Geno's should sell a T-shirt with the sign!

Gunny
02-10-2007, 10:24 AM
It's kind of like calling up a business and hearing, For english press 1, for spanish press 2

It's bullshit. If you can't speak english, get the fuck out. I'm so sick and tired of everyone bending over backwards for the 'minority', it's not a minority when it's a fucking plague. If you move to germany...guess what, better learn to speak german. If you move to rural Mexico, what do you think would happen if you couldn't speak Mexican....or worse, demanded that they speak english so you could understand them in 'their' country! LIKE A FART IN CHURCH, that's how well you would be recieved. Yet they fucking expect us to bend over backwards to accomodate them? And people in this country back them up?

SUCK MY DICK AND JUMP BACK OVER THE FENCE!

Hell, it's getting to the point where you have to request a translator who speaks english, at a restaurant, in our own fucking country...
I think it is perfectly acceptable for this guy to request that patrons speak his native language, in his Privately owned Business, in his native country...

While not fluent, I can get around in Spanish. But I don't, and WON'T except when I used to go to Mexico.

They solved that problem though by bringing Mexico to me.:smoke:

avatar4321
02-10-2007, 02:09 PM
What's sick and wrong about this is they are wasting time on this when they city should be trying to figure out why Philadelphia has such a sick and high murder rate.

trobinett
02-10-2007, 02:13 PM
Saw this man's interview on Fox, seemed like a "stand up guy".

No worries about him backing down on this either.

Wonder if he would be interested in running for President?:lol: