Black police officers' group sues over Web site

An association of black police officers has sued the Philadelphia Police Department in federal court for allowing its officers to post "blatantly racist . . . and offensive" content on a popular Web site devoted to law enforcement topics.

The suit, filed Wednesday, says Domelights.com, which bills itself as "the voice of the good guys," was founded by a Philadelphia police sergeant who uses the screen name "McQ" and "encourages the racially offensive conduct."

The Guardian Civic League also sued McQ and the 10-year-old Web site, a forum where officers discuss crime news, police gossip, current events and other topics, often in profane and humorous rants.

Guardian Civic League attorney Brian Mildenberg said that black officers had long reviled the site and that complaints had been been lodged with current and past police administrations to no avail.

Even the word domelights, which normally refers to the police lights on top of cruisers, has taken on an "insulting connotation" among black officers, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit cites several posts, including one showing slain white officers next to black suspects and the headline "Guns Don't Kill People, Dangerous Minorities Do."

Mildenberg said white officers post and moderate the forums while on duty and on department computers, creating "a racially hostile environment."

"It's the same thing as you can't hang racist material in the workplace," he said.

The lawsuit does not identify McQ, but his Domelights profile contains the name Fred McQuiggan. In 2004, McQuiggan wrote a letter to the editor published in The Inquirer that included his Domelights e-mail address.

There was no response to two requests for comment sent to that e-mail address yesterday, and other efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.

Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman, confirmed that McQuiggan was on active duty and worked at Police Headquarters but said he did not know whether McQuiggan was involved with Domelights.

The department would not comment on the lawsuit.

By 7 last night, Domelights had collected 54 comments and more than 4,300 page views on a forum devoted to the civic league's lawsuit.

Many were defensive, some were belligerent, and several included unprintable opinions about league president Rochelle Bilal.

One post read: "Please tell me this is some idea of a sick joke! Freedom of speech, anyone?"

Mildenberg said there was no First Amendment protection on an employer's computer. "The employer owns your e-mail, your computer," he said.

Police policy also should prohibit officers from posting racist material on their own time, he said. Regulations require officers "to avoid engaging in racially offensive speech or conduct in public," according to the lawsuit.

The site is open to the public, and some posters have identified themselves as black officers and weighed in on racially charged discussions.

The topics also range to the mundane. Recent discussions have included "Legendary Cops & Great Supervisors," and a fair amount of trash talk on the best FOP softball team.

But discussions on crime and other racially tinged issues - such as a group of city children who recently were disinvited from swimming at a suburban pool - often include provocative comments.

One post on the swimming pool controversy likened the children to "a bunch of ghetto monkey faces." Another suggested that the swim club "thought that the kids were going to turn the pool into chocolate milk."

Other comments cited by Mildenberg were more reasoned but still racially sensitive.

"I don't bash blacks," one read. "I tell it like I see it and if you don't see the destruction that's going on . . . and who is doing it, you must be color blind."

The class-action suit, filed on behalf of 2,300 black Philadelphia police officers, asks the court to order the Police Department to ban officers from operating Domelights or posting racially insensitive material.

The suit also seeks an unspecified amount for damages.

The Philadelphia NAACP and the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers joined the civic league as plaintiffs.