It depends on the complaint made to the law enforcement agency.
(A) “There are illegal immigrants working and frequenting this restaurant as customers, and I’d like you to go round them up and deport them.”
(B) “There are people speaking Spanish to one another at this restaurant, and I’d like you to go round them up and deport them.”
There’s nothing false or actionable about the second report.
Of course, the agency in question should respond to (B) by explaining that speaking Spanish in public is not illegal, nor an indicia of problematic immigration status.
To illustrate the point, what if a lawyer called the police to report he saw a man with a holstered sidearm and he wanted the police to come arrest the armed man? (Not in New York, but in, say, Virginia, where carrying a firearm in plain view is legal and does not require so much as a license). That would (or should) also result in the dispatcher advising the caller that the conduct being described is perfectly legal. And it should not result in anyone being disbarred.
Now, if his call were more along the lines of option (A), perhaps there are the beginnings of a case of false reporting. Even then, though, it’s extraordinarily weak.
As an aside, I’ve read that the lease to his office has been cancelled so he will be looking for new space soon. I wonder how difficult it will be for him to find accommodations in a building of sufficient quality that someone would expect to find a lawyer there. I would get a good laugh out of finding out that he’s stuck in a strip mall somewhere.
Is it fair to ruin his life without knowing his heart? I mean, all this could just be circumstantial, with perfectly reasonable, non-racist explanations. Right?
I saw the video - this guy is an entitled douche-bag. He lives in NYC and acts like he doesn’t hear Spanish being spoken on a regular basis there?! What a clueless piece of shit.
I was on vacation in NYC a couple of years ago & found it fantastic. I thought all of the different languages being spoken was interesting, and gave the city a definite melting pot/multi-culturism that isn’t found in many other places. The only language I can fluently speak/understand is English, but I don’t mind hearing other languages at all, and actually think it’s cool in a lot of cases.
Well, it’s possible to defend “non-racist,” I suppose, because his bizarre rants seem targeted at foreigners rather than particular races. The question might be how he reacts to a pair of illegal immigrants from Norway, pale, blonde and blue-eyed.
I strongly suspect his ire towards Lars and Astrid would be substantially muted, though. I think he’s the kind of person who believes himself to be upset with illegal immigrants but who readily uses skin color and foreign languages as a proxy for “illegal immigrants.”
Regardless of whether he can be disbarred, there are going to be consequences. Some offices may not want to rent space to his firm. Some clients might not want to be associated with such a complete and utter wanker. And he might have a hard time finding an associate to work with. He’s probably on his own now, and he just made it his own professional life a lot harder. Being a dick in public has a price.
[INDENT][INDENT][INDENT] Like the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side is an affluent, primarily residential area with many of its residents working in commercial areas of Midtown and Lower Manhattan. It has the reputation of being New York City’s cultural and intellectual hub, with Columbia University and Barnard College located at the north end of the neighborhood, and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts located at the south end. The Upper West Side is considered to be among New York City’s wealthiest neighborhoods.[4] [/INDENT][/INDENT][/INDENT]
I agree and it’s impractical too. So you get someone fired. One of two things happen: 1) they get another job which you don’t think they should have, one that might be even more problematic given his or her racist views, 2) they rely on taxpayer support.
That’s why I just call people getting fired for off duty behavior “retaliation”. Because that’s all it is. Some people want this person punished, there’s no actual corrective action being taken here. It’s just revenge.
I can’t see how (B) is not a frivolous and inappropriate complaint too. You don’t ask a law enforcement agency to “do something” unless you think it is a legitimate complaint for them to address. To my mind, B is essentially A. If he’d instead said “a lot of Spanish, maybe you guys should investigate” that would be legitimately not an actual invalid complaint. But any “you should deport” implies “they are illegal” which makes it a false complaint.
Regardless, most dicks don’t actually do anything unless they’ve been significantly impacted. he’s had his rant, he thinks he’s thrown the fear of God/ICE into them, he goes about the rest of his day oblivious to his own stupidity.
This is kind of what I’m thinking. The guy is a lawyer, which suggests two things: 1) he’s not stupid; therefore 2) this is a calculated image.
Even if only 3% of New Yorkers are raging xenophobes, and even if only 3% of them need a lawyer, and even if only 3% of them come to him (and he’s getting tons of free exposure & advertising that would appeal strongly to other raging xenophobes) he’s got more business than he knows what to do with. Add to that his flamboyant behavior might elicit some personal torts and this guy will be doing alright financially with the bigot business alone. If he’s an otherwise competent trial lawyer … yeah, he’s doing alright for himself.