Michael Richards

[lpatrice]

I'm sorry but I disagree that "hurt feelings" should be remedied with a big fat paycheck. Please.

[magazinewhore]

Yeah, I don't know. Although Richard's rant was vile and he's a sh*thead, I'm not sure people should be able to sue because someone said something or expressed an opinion. I hate to pull out the cliche, but it seems it's a slippery slope...

[Neurochick]

lpatrice said:

I'm sorry but I disagree that "hurt feelings" should be remedied with a big fat paycheck. Please.

It's more than hurt feelings, he used violent language, he verbally attacked someone; as an adult you're NOT supposed to do that. What happened to restraint of tongue and pen? Richards isn't a child, he's an adult, he knew what those words meant, he knew it was wrong, he meant to say just what he said.

What if after MR's rant there had been a fight in the club about the fight? Then MR's words would have incited a riot.

[Oxynia]

lpatrice said:

I'm sorry but I disagree that "hurt feelings" should be remedied with a big fat paycheck. Please.

I agree. Sue for what? Being insulted? I agree that what MR said was in exceptionally poor taste but illegal? I don't think so. I'm not a lawyer so I don't know for sure...that just seems a big stretch to me.

[Mouse]

I'd agree. For better or worse, MR has a legal right to spout all the racist crap he wants.

If you support free speech, you need to support even the speech you hate.

[Deleted]

While I agree that "as an adult you're NOT supposed to do that"--that's true only in a societal sense, NOT a legal one.

The fact is, one of the bedrocks of our country is freedom of speech--ALL speech, including vile, bigoted speech. That's kind of the point of "freedom". And I agree that hurt feelings are not an impinging on anyone else's life and liberty. Please.
I'm not defending what he said or how he behaved, but just "raging" at someone, anyone--including bigoted name-calling, isn't illegal. I personally don't think Richards is a true "racist", btw(a person who believes that another race is inferior)--at least, I don't think we can say he definitely is because he used those words. What he IS is an angry jerk. If the people bugging him had been anything else--say, heavyset white guys, it's have been "you fat pigs!" along with all the profanities...ditto any other obvious ethnicity. He would have used ANYthing to just be as offensive and insulting as possible, imho. I doubt there's a special thing he's got for black people. I think it's likely all people.
And yes, due to US history there's things "white people shouldn't say to black folks" but there is virtually nothing ANY people "can't" say to any other folks. That's again, freedom of speech as guaranteed by our constitution. And I for one don't think we need legal punishment for ugly talk. Who gets to continually draw the lines, and decide under what circumstances? No thanks.

[Neurochick]

mouse said:

I'd agree. For better or worse, MR has a legal right to spout all the racist crap he wants.

If you support free speech, you need to support even the speech you hate.

But the reality is that free speech isn't free; everyone is accountable for their actions. Even on this board, if people start abusing each other, the thread it locked, so that's a consequence. The truth is that as an adult you have to be cool, calm and collected or there will be consequences. I don't think that MR should just be allowed to go on without any consequences, which is what will happen. He'll go into rehab, he'll cry on camera and then everybody will forget. When you hit someone in the pocketbook, that gets their attention.

[ownlife]

Gloria Allred has challenged Richards to face the hecklers in front of a retired judge and pay whatever amount of damages the judge recommends. If there were a legal basis for a case, I gather she'd be filing a lawsuit now instead of taking the retired judge route. Any lawyer in the house can correct me if I'm wrong....

[Neurochick]

ownlife said:

Gloria Allred has challenged Richards to face the hecklers in front of a retired judge and pay whatever amount of damages the judge recommends. If there were a legal basis for a case, I gather she'd be filing a lawsuit now instead of taking the retired judge route. Any lawyer in the house can correct me if I'm wrong....

If Richards was truely sincere about apologizing, he would have gone on the Today show Wednesday and said he was sorry, case closed.

Right now Richards has not sufferered. Now people are upset about it but in about six months it will be forgotten, however if someone had to pay up, that's a little hard to forget. I really don't see what the issue is.

It seems that people think, "oh he just said the 'n' word" oh he just insulted blacks, they were probably disruptive anyway." That's the vibe I've been getting, even in NYC, where some idiot said something like, "he's a comedian, it's okay."

It's NOT okay, you're an adult. When a child says bad words maybe it's because they don't know any better, but when you're over forty you really should know better and if you don't, you have to pay the consequences.

[firstaid]

Gloria said that Richards should "put his money where his mouth is." It was truly dispicable what Richards said, but I don't think they should get monetary compensation. An apology, of course. I can't stand Gloria Allred. She such a shameless famewhore/ ambulence chaser.

I totally agree. She is totally using this situation to get more self promotion and attention. I watched the today show interview and she is wanted to propose that the "victims" and Richards meet with a "retired" judge and settle the defamation case for the pain and suffering caused by the incident. I really don't think the case has a leg to stand on and will only put the attention on her.

As a minority, I can understand the plight the two young men are going through. Richards did a horribly wrong thing, but to sue over it IMO is ludicrous. One can boycott the networks that show Seinfeld in syndication or send letters to the network saying they should not renew a contract for more episodes. With this situation new questions arise,can white people sue over the fact that a minority comedian calls them whitie? or cracker? or any other racial epithets? I am sure that if we could sue anyone or everyone that has disrespected us and hurled insults at us, we would all be millionaires.