Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has fired city worker Nelli Routsalainen for participating in a BlackLivesMatter protest on Thursdays commemoration of MLKs birthday. Nelli wasn’t the only government employee recently disciplined for exercising their First Amendment rights. North Miami Beach Police officer Ericson Harrell faced disciplinary action from his police department for his involvement in “Anonymous” and his refusal to take off a mask at a recent protest that he organized and participated in which lead to his arrest. While charges of obstructing traffic were dropped, the officer was suspended with pay in which his first 20 hours of suspended pay were docked. For years my father had the same concern as a government employee. In the 2000’s he was the network administrator of the federal court system in New York City and on Long Island and had access to some very sensitive government information. Because of that he began to shy away from speaking out, especially online, against the Bush administration, the Iraq war, and things like the Patriot Act. And the government employees who are often most scrutinized and penalized for exercising their first amendment rights are ex military, since many have had access to confidential information. Even if you never had access, or you did but never released that information, if you express non-threatening discontent with the president or government you can be met with FBI agents at your front door who can, and have in the past, detained vets indefinitely with no due process under section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 09:36:32 +0000
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