Legal brief: Do NYPD officers have a "free speech right" to bigoted parades?

The City of New York doesn't think so -- not in uniform, anyway. Here's the City's brief in Latino Officers Association v. City of New York (1999).

"When an officer marches in uniform with a particular group, the clearest message sent to the public is that the NYPD -- not the particular officer -- approves of that group. If members insisted on the right to march in uniform with the Ku lux Klan or the Nazi Party, the NYPD's credibility with the community would be seriously undermined and its ability to perform its mission irreparably damaged."

Okay?