Oregon Snowflake Cashes In

Multnomah County has agreed to pay $100,000 to a black employee who claimed the county fostered a racially insensitive workplace after she complained about a co-worker who pinned up a “Blue Lives Matter” flag.

Karimah Guion-Pledgure claimed in her January lawsuit that the flag “demeans” and “denigrates” the Black Lives Matter movement. But some co-workers didn’t agree, and Guion-Pledgure claims they harassed her for it -- leading her to suffer debilitating stress and health problems, the suit said.

A probation officer hung up the flag in September 2017 above the probation officer’s desk, and after Guion-Pledgure and other black co-workers complained, supervisors refused to require it be removed, the suit said.

Proponents of the Blue Lives Matter flag say it’s meant to support and honor the work and sacrifices of law enforcement officers.

Guion-Pledgure’s lawsuit said the Blue Lives Matter movement “co-opts” the Black Lives Matter movement and "repurposes it to shift focus to law enforcement — a chosen profession, not a racial identity — and thus denigrates, dilutes, and demeans the purpose of the Black Lives Matter movement.”

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