Philadelphia Police Officer Rochelle Bilal wants to silence "the voice of the good guys." Because decent people don't engage in racist, sexist attacks - especially when armed and in uniform.
That previous paragraph will probably bump me up the list of women the guys at www.Domelights.com love to hate. Bilal, president of the black police officers' Guardian Civic League, has long occupied the top spot.
"People say I need protection, but I'm not scared," Bilal tells me of her Domelights enemies. "I know they're just cowards hiding behind screen names. And they know I have a gun just like them."
Domelights, for the uninitiated, is an Internet forum where cops, firefighters, and wannabes anonymously vent and scream. What began as a means to talk about crime evolved into a vitriolic free-for-all.
Some officers, the league charges, proudly type despicable drivel on city computers. What's worse: Some supervisors join the racist fun in full view of black colleagues.
Technically, it's the 2,300-member Guardian League, the NAACP, and National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers that filed a federal class-action lawsuit last week against the PPD, Domelights, and its police-sergeant founder for creating "a racially discriminatory and hostile employment environment."
But every case needs a face, and this one has Bilal's. Post-lawsuit, her foes are taking full body shots.
"Rochelle Bilal," read one wildly celebrated post, "is a worthless piece of s- who deserves to be gang-raped outside an AIDS clinic."
Growing up in North Philadelphia in the chaotic 1960s, Bilal didn't trust the police until a beat cop gave her life-changing advice.
"If you want to change it," he told her, "you have to be part of it."
She joined the force in 1986 - "we had to sue to get in" - and set about proving that "you don't have to be abusive to get the job done."
As an outspoken rookie, Bilal earned the nickname "Angela Davis." Moving through juvenile aid and sex crimes, Bilal made many fellow officers uncomfortable by talking about the racism, sexism, and occasionally violent arrogance plaguing the department.
"We can't excuse bad behavior just because our job is difficult," says the narcotics investigator, now 52. "We can't rally around a bad cop just because a good cop died."
League members began monitoring Domelights two years ago, printing out posts and documenting when cops teed off at work. Bilal knew it was time to sue after Domelights users spat racist slurs at the Creative Steps campers during the recent swimming pool controversy.
"We are sworn to serve and protect all people of the city," Bilal argues. "If you are coming to work with hatred and disgust for some of the people, how can you do that?"
As someone who earns a living speaking my mind, I blanch at any case in which one party wants to squelch another's right to rant.
But the league's lawyer, Brian Mildenberg, reminds me that PPD regulations prohibit racially offensive behavior. And federal law explicitly limits what you can say to the guy in the next cubicle.
"Free speech is a civil right," he notes, "but within the workplace, free speech is restricted."
After the lawsuit was filed, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey - who says he's never been on Domelights - blocked the site on city computers. Bilal's group wants the court to go further and ban officers from making racially offensive posts on their own time or laptops.
"Even if you do it from home," Mildenberg explains, "you're affecting the public arena."
The black officers' league also wants a judge to force Domelights to remove objectionable comments.
Given the volume of venom to be deleted, the Web site might as well go dark. If the Domelights regulars need help, Bilal will be happy to pull the plug.
Contact Monica Yant Kinney
at 215-854-4670 or myant@phillynews.com.
Read her recent work at http://go.philly.com/yantkinney.
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