INQUIRER: An association of black police officers has sued the Philadelphia Police Department in federal court for allowing its officers to post “blatantly racist . . . and offensive” content on a popular Web site devoted to law enforcement topics. The suit, filed Wednesday, says Domelights.com, which bills itself as “the voice of the good guys,” was founded by a Philadelphia police sergeant who uses the screen name “McQ” and “encourages the racially offensive conduct.”
The Guardian Civic League also sued McQ and the 10-year-old Web site, a forum where officers discuss crime news, police gossip, current events and other topics, often in profane and humorous rants. Guardian Civic League attorney Brian Mildenberg said that black officers had long reviled the site and that complaints had been been 
lodged with current and past police administrations to no avail.
Even the word domelights, which normally refers to the police lights on top of cruisers, has taken on an “insulting connotation” among black officers, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit cites several posts, including one showing slain white officers next to black suspects and the headline “Guns Don’t Kill People, Dangerous Minorities Do.” Mildenberg said white officers post and moderate the forums while on duty and on department computers, creating “a racially hostile environment.” “It’s the same thing as you can’t hang racist material in the workplace,” he said. MORE
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Pope Falls Down, Does Not Go ‘Boom’
NEW YORK TIMES: Pope Benedict XVI was taken to a hospital in northern Italy on Friday after slipping and falling during his vacation in the Alps, a Vatican spokesman said. Benedict ”slipped and got hurt” but ”it doesn’t seem to be serious,” the Rev. Federico Lombardi said. Since Monday, Benedict has been vacationing at chalet in the village of Les Combes in the Valle d’Aosta region near the French border. Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, also spent several summer at Les Combes. While John Paul liked to hike, Benedict spends most of his time inside the chalet that looks out on Mount Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. MORE