This whole trend of everyone being offended by everything is out of control. I wasn’t there. I don’t know what this guys deal is, for all I know he is a complete tool. But giving the finger to a Town Board is sufficient to strip someone of his 1A rights as well as forbidding him from attending gatherings where HIS elected government sets policy and law, that affect HIM.
Show of hands, who goes to the “sexual harassment” place when someone gives you the finger? How about being “terribly offended and disgusted” when someone flips you off?
i don’t know what the law allows in this realm but I truly hope this guy sues the balls off of the Town for their ham handed, excessive, “terribly offensive and disgusting” abuse of their power.
I clipped part of the article that I didn’t think relevant to this story, click link if you care.
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/...nna-1.19745107
The Town of Oyster Bay has banned a frequent critic of Supervisor Joseph Saladino from attending town board meetings for the rest of the year because of an allegedly lewd gesture he made at the June 26 meeting.
Town Attorney Joseph Nocella on Thursday sent a letter to Syosset resident Kevin McKenna stating that the town “cannot, and will not, allow you to disrupt Town business, nor permit you to make inappropriate gestures directed at, or in the presence of, the Town board, Town officials and residents of the Town.”
Nocella also chastised McKenna for shouting as he was leaving the meeting.
As board members rose to move to executive session at the June 26 meeting, McKenna, who was sitting near the front of the audience, made a motion with his hand that Councilwoman Michele Johnson said she thought was lewd.
“Excuse me, that’s disgusting,” Johnson said.
Johnson said later she "was terribly offended and disgusted."
"To me this is sexual harassment," she said. "It’s an action that causes hostility in the workplace. I shouldn’t have to come to work and be subjected to a member of the general public making lewd hand gestures at me or the board.”
She said the ban on McKenna is justified.
Johnson said at Tuesday’s board meeting that McKenna’s action violated the town board’s rules of decorum.
“If our rules of decorum are not strong enough to enforce the ban, and if Mr. McKenna is unwilling to voluntarily adhere to the ban, I’d ask that our rules be strengthened to protect everyone from such harassment,” she said.
Johnson said McKenna’s gaze was toward the dais, but not focused on any particular board member, when he made the hand motion.
McKenna said in an interview that he had been talking to his girlfriend, who was sitting next to him, when he made the motion, which he said represented his frustration that board members were leaving to confer privately.
“... It was not directed to anyone up there, because I thought they were all gone,” McKenna said, adding that he “would never, ever” make a lewd gesture toward any member of the board.
McKenna said the ban is an attempt by Saladino to stop him from publicly criticizing the supervisor.
Town spokesman Brian Nevin said Nocella made the decision to bar McKenna, not Saladino.
McKenna “made an extremely vulgar and inappropriate gesture that degrades women, and is offensive to all,” Saladino said in an interview after Tuesday’s meeting.
Council Anthony Macagnone said he didn’t see the gesture, but even if it was obscene, McKenna shouldn’t be banned from future meetings.
“I think banning someone should be only if someone feels threatened,” Macagnone said, adding that “Kevin is not always correct, but he’s passionate about what he says. Sometimes his passion goes a bit too far.”
Show of hands, who goes to the “sexual harassment” place when someone gives you the finger? How about being “terribly offended and disgusted” when someone flips you off?
i don’t know what the law allows in this realm but I truly hope this guy sues the balls off of the Town for their ham handed, excessive, “terribly offensive and disgusting” abuse of their power.
I clipped part of the article that I didn’t think relevant to this story, click link if you care.
https://www.newsday.com/long-island/...nna-1.19745107
The Town of Oyster Bay has banned a frequent critic of Supervisor Joseph Saladino from attending town board meetings for the rest of the year because of an allegedly lewd gesture he made at the June 26 meeting.
Town Attorney Joseph Nocella on Thursday sent a letter to Syosset resident Kevin McKenna stating that the town “cannot, and will not, allow you to disrupt Town business, nor permit you to make inappropriate gestures directed at, or in the presence of, the Town board, Town officials and residents of the Town.”
Nocella also chastised McKenna for shouting as he was leaving the meeting.
As board members rose to move to executive session at the June 26 meeting, McKenna, who was sitting near the front of the audience, made a motion with his hand that Councilwoman Michele Johnson said she thought was lewd.
“Excuse me, that’s disgusting,” Johnson said.
Johnson said later she "was terribly offended and disgusted."
"To me this is sexual harassment," she said. "It’s an action that causes hostility in the workplace. I shouldn’t have to come to work and be subjected to a member of the general public making lewd hand gestures at me or the board.”
She said the ban on McKenna is justified.
Johnson said at Tuesday’s board meeting that McKenna’s action violated the town board’s rules of decorum.
“If our rules of decorum are not strong enough to enforce the ban, and if Mr. McKenna is unwilling to voluntarily adhere to the ban, I’d ask that our rules be strengthened to protect everyone from such harassment,” she said.
Johnson said McKenna’s gaze was toward the dais, but not focused on any particular board member, when he made the hand motion.
McKenna said in an interview that he had been talking to his girlfriend, who was sitting next to him, when he made the motion, which he said represented his frustration that board members were leaving to confer privately.
“... It was not directed to anyone up there, because I thought they were all gone,” McKenna said, adding that he “would never, ever” make a lewd gesture toward any member of the board.
McKenna said the ban is an attempt by Saladino to stop him from publicly criticizing the supervisor.
Town spokesman Brian Nevin said Nocella made the decision to bar McKenna, not Saladino.
McKenna “made an extremely vulgar and inappropriate gesture that degrades women, and is offensive to all,” Saladino said in an interview after Tuesday’s meeting.
Council Anthony Macagnone said he didn’t see the gesture, but even if it was obscene, McKenna shouldn’t be banned from future meetings.
“I think banning someone should be only if someone feels threatened,” Macagnone said, adding that “Kevin is not always correct, but he’s passionate about what he says. Sometimes his passion goes a bit too far.”
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