Recently I spoke at Utah Valley University about the private regulation of speech, particularly in businesses curtailing not just workplace speech but speech outside of the workplace. We have discussed such incidents where people were fired for YouTube videos or drunken scenes. This “little brother” problem falls outside of the first amendment which addresses government regulation of speech. As a result, businesses have wide latitude in punishing employees for private conduct, though some states have laws protecting some forms of speech and employment such as voting and political activities. We have a new such case involving a woman in Ontario who shot and posted a video of her berating a neighbor for flying a Mexican flag. The video caused many to be understandably angry with Tressy Capps, who didn’t seem to see how obnoxious she appeared in her own posted video. However, it has not escaped her employer, which proceeded to fire her.
The video below is incredibly insulting and intolerant in my view. Capps suggests that the family might want to move back to Mexico simply because they are flying the Mexican flag. Capps is described as a political activist and asks woman in the window
“Is that a Mexican flag in your front yard?” Capps is heard asking the homeowner, who is behind a window. You know we live in America right? This is the United States. So, why are you flying a Mexican flag in your front yard?”
The woman did not appear to understand English. Her husband Sigifredo Banuelos later told the media that he did not see what was offensive about flying the Mexican flag and that they fly both the American and Mexican flags.
Capps posted her video and not surprisingly received a harsh response. Her real estate company was not amused and fired her from an independent contactor position. For a real estate company in an area with a large Hispanic population, the decision was probably not viewed as a particularly difficult one. While the public confrontation did not involve her work, it certainly involved the clientele of her work. She made herself a liability and businesses are first to remove at-will employees who harm the bottom line.
I believe that there should be protection for private employees engaging in protected speech. However, when an employee seeks such notoriety and becomes such a liability, there is a stronger basis for the company acting to protect its business interests.
Woman Irate That Ontario Family Is Flying Mexican Flag In Their Front Yard
Swarthmoremom,
“Social justice?” Is that a “PC” term? If so, you’re in for a lot of criticism from the anti-Trayvonazis!
Annie,
Here we go again with the amateur psychologists/psychoanalysts. It’s so predictable–and, actually, quite funny. Maybe we’re in store for another “hilarious” verse about a dead young black man.
🙂
Maybe these ladies were just brought up with a sense of social justice which they have carried with them their entire lives. Such a concept would seem to be entirely foreign to many of the “new” posters here.
@NickS
You know, there is an alternative theory to explain why some of these staid white ladies are sooo fascinated and obsessed with a dead thug. Maybe it’s that whole “bad boy”: thing, like what that female prosecutor and the jail bird went through??? But, it would probably take a tag team of therapists to figure out the psycho-dynamics of what is going on.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Elaine its as if it’s inconceivable to some folks that other people actually know and associate with black people, or even have black people as family members. It’s a severe lack of insight, its as small and narrow of a space that some folks seems to think others live in. I find it amazing that some feel so comfortable framing others without really knowing them.
I have deleted a couple more comments on this thread to try to end the personal digs and attacks.
I’m not asking for sympathy for Capps. I’m just asking that she not be the victim of, elitist, smarmy, condescension. There is a great expanse between empathy and derision. Non judgmental people can see that clearly. Some are blind.
Next thing you know–I’ll be accused of playing the race card!
You have a right to free speech, not to consequence free speech. Some of the things that you say might want people to express THEIR fundamental right to associate with people other than yourself.
Some people have no sympathy for Trayvon Martin. I have no sympathy for Tressy Capps. Trayvon Martin lost his life; Tressy Capps lost her job. Then again, Trayvon was just a young black thug. Tressy Capps is a white political activist doing her best to keep America safe from people who fly flags of other countries on their own property.
Elaine – Trayvon Martin was beating Zimmermann’s head into the concrete and might have beaten him to death if Zimmermann had not defended himself. There is nothing about thugs that I find admirable.
BFM, As you alluded to, we Eyetalians are very patriotic. My immigrant grandfather loved this country as much as anyone I have ever known. So did my immigrant grandmother who never became a citizen. She was smart as hell but insecure in that regard and never took the test, although gently encouraged by grandpa. Every January, the first thing she would do is go an register as an alien.
All that said, BFM, I am not unsympathetic to the hard working taxpayers of border states like Ca. who see the financial toll of illegal immigration. We need to secure our border. This is wrong and unsustainable.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2014/09/26/california-city-council-candidate-receives-death-threats-over-mexican-flag-flap/
Excerpt:
Capps, who is running for a local city council spot in Fontana, Calif., posted the video online – and it quickly went viral.
When her former employer Coldwell Banker got wind of the video, the banking giant promptly let Capps go from her position with the company.
“We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind,” David Siroty of Coldwell Banker Real Estate said in a statement. “We hold our affiliated companies to high ethical standards. Each of our franchised companies is independently owned and operated and we fully support the local owner’s decision to disassociate this independent agent from the brokerage firm and, by extension, our franchise system.”
Capps, in her video, also suggests that the family could face fines and legal problems for flying the Mexican flag, but the Ontario, California City Attorney John Brown disputed that claim.
“The City of Ontario takes great pride in being one of the most ethnically and racially diverse cities in Southern California,” Brown said. “Those expressions of ethnic and racial diversity take many forms throughout our City, and the City has always taken the position that such speech is absolutely protected by the both the United States and California Constitutions.”
Tressy Capps–an example of the typical busybody. Too bad she was offended because a family was flying a Mexican flag. Maybe Capps should go back home and learn to mind her own business.
@Nick Spinelli ” I see Mexican immigrants as identical to Italian immigrants. They are hard working, strong family orientation, religious and entrepreneurial. Haters gotta hate.”
Not only that there are (or were, anyway) plenty of Italian-American homes with mementos and artifacts with Italian flags, or at least Italian flag colors, included in the design.
Any body care to call Italian-Americans unpatriotic?
Thanks, Nick. Interesting issue I am somewhat torn on, being an employee myself. But I think the employer’s rights on this one should prevail.
Juris, Very well thought out comment.
From JT’s post: “I believe that there should be protection for private employees engaging in protected speech.”
I suppose I shouldn’t since JT is a free speech advocate, but I am somewhat surprised he holds such a view. What is “protected” speech? Where would one draw the line on protection of private employee speech? JT seems to concede this particular example is beyond that line (“However, when an employee seeks such notoriety and becomes such a liability, there is a stronger basis for the company acting to protect its business interests.”).
But that exemplifies the incredible balancing act between private speech and the employer’s rights in protecting its reputation, its profits, and its brand. I think any “protection” (law) would be arbitrary and a nightmare to enforce, inviting more litigation in an already litigious society.
I say government has no business in this balancing act.
Any one else think otherwise? If so, how do you draft such a law without throwing employer rights out the window?
If anyone else wants to skip the idiotic videos that precede the video mentioned in this post, I found it this way:
1. I started the video.
2. Hovered the cursor on the top left and ‘Playlist’ appeared.
3. I selected this control and got a menu of video titles; selected the obvious one.
4. It is amazingly offensive.
5. Then I just stopped it when this video was done.
The other videos seem to feature people, including this Capps person, talking (or, in her case, ranting) to the Riverside, CA City Council about a resolution that involves immigration.
To be sure this kind of thing should make us glad we never have to serve as councilmembers.
Ms Capps has a right to express her opinions, no matter how offensive. She does NOT have a right to work for any particular firm – that is a choice requiring agreement between the employer and employee. Ms Capps was a liability to her employer, who had every right to fire her.
Darren, Great idea. Maybe the whole neighborhood could end up looking like the UN with each family flying different flags. A UN themed flag day.
The neighboring family should fly a Soviet flag next time.