Infowars host’s lawyer says the N-word in a dropped-pants comedy routine; should he face discipline?

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Ethics Infowars host's lawyer says the N-word in a dropped-pants comedy routine; should he face discipline?

By Debra Cassens Weiss

May 2, 2022, 8:43 am CDT

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A Connecticut-based branch of Black Lives Matter is calling for the suspension of a criminal defense lawyer who dropped his pants and used the N-word in a comedy routine.

Lawyer Norm Pattis dropped his suitpants to reveal gym shorts and went on to criticize “woke” culture. Captured on a now-viral video, the comedy routine delivered at a pizza restaurant “was peppered with homophobic and racist comments” and ended with the use of the N-word, the Hartford Courant reports.

“The bottom line is you just can’t say certain words. They’re off-limits. And one of those words is [the N-word],” Pattis said.

Above the Law and Fox 61 are among the other publications covering the offensive standup routine.

Pattis was in the news when he represented Infowars host Alex Jones in defamation lawsuits filed by parents of children killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Jones had called the December 2012 mass shooting a “giant hoax.”

After the Sandy Hook judgment, Pattis and Jones had issued a statement saying the First Amendment “was crucified.” Pattis also took a free speech stance in a blog post defending his comedy routine.

“The woke elite are much in need of ridicule and comedic take down,” he wrote.

Pattis said he had twice used the N-word in the comedy competition in East Haven, Connecticut, in an initial round and in the finals of the multiweek competition.

Pattis wrote that, in the first routine, “I commented on Joe Rogan’s removing a series of his podcasts from Spotify because the N-word appeared in them. It is ridiculous that we give words such power. So I said, in that gig, that I wanted to make sure my performance was never shown on YouTube. I dropped the N-word. The audience gasped. A boundary had been crossed, shattered, mocked. And no one was hurt. Fancy that.”

In his second routine, Pattis wrote, he reworked comedian and actor George Carlin’s routine on “seven dirty words.”

“I chose my words carefully, like Carlin dropping the F-bomb to shock sensibilities in the name of good sense, I uttered words designed and intended to offend women, the disabled, gays, transgender folk and, yes, people of color,” he said.

Fox 61 asked Pattis about critics who are calling for his suspension or disbarment.

“If people want to make a run at my license, let them,” he responded in a text message. “We’re confident the First Amendment wins.”

Above the Law saw the issue in another light.

“Some people suggest that he should be disciplined for his pattern of derogatory statements,” the blog said. “There’s certainly an argument that it portrays the profession in a bad light. Though he’s free to express his horrible ideas and keep his job just as much as the rest of us are free to ridicule him, protest and organize boycotts—because that’s what actual free speech looks like.

“But his crimes against comedy? There’s got to be some kind of discipline for that.”

When high powered lawyers like Norm Pattis can use the N word with reckless abandon and there’s pride behind using slurs as humor… it lets you know that even those that you’d consider an ally in a racially unjust judicial system, are still okay with racism at your expense.

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