A Philadelphia Fire Department paramedic is under fire for posting this picture with the caption: “Our real enemy.” The caption also said “Need 2 stop pointing guns at each other & at the ones that’s legally killing innocents.” Marcell Salters has also published highly antagonistic language toward police officers. He has since apologized but some have called for his punishment or termination. In the meantime, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is under attack after Ismaaiyl Brinsley effectively executed two police officers over his anger with the recent decisions by grand juries in Missouri and New York. police have been protesting what they view as de Blasio’s unfair portrayals of police after the decision, including turning their backs on the mayor when he came to give a press conference on the murders.
Salters
Marcell Salters has been denounced for his attack on officers who often protect paramedics at accident and crime scenes. In now deleted comments, Salters said that he “never did or will like police” and “[b]ecause of what i do i have to work with them but dont have to like them . . . There are numerous crooked & corrupted cops (mostly white) & mostly they harass, beat, or kill innocents (mostly blks).”
He has since apologized and posted the following: “I would like to deeply apologize to anyone i have offended. That post was out of anger of what is going on around the world (mike brown, eric garner & etc) & past experiences that i have had with the police. . . My intentions was not to slander or hurt anyone or my brothers in blue. Again i am sorry.”
I have previously written about concerns that public employees are increasingly being disciplined for actions in their private lives or views or associations outside of work. We have previously seen teachers (here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here), here, here, students (here and here) and other public employees (here and here and here) fired for their private speech or conduct, including school employees fired for posing in magazines (here), appearing on television shows in bikinis (here), or having a career in the adult entertainment industry (here).
One different wrinkle is that Joseph Schulle, head of the firefighters’ union Local 22, said that Salters could be disciplined because he allegedly made a comment about the post while on duty. That creates a different context than many of the prior cases above where comments or postings were made entirely during off-hours or outside of public jobs. It is not clear what the comment was that is being isolated as a possible basis for discipline however.
I tend to view these cases from a first amendment perspective. I find Salters’ comments to be highly offensive and wrong. However, I do believe that he has a right to say them just as others have a right to denounced them. While such comments obviously make for tense working conditions, some of us believe that free speech requires bright-line rules of protection even for hateful speech like that of Marcell Salters.
The uproar of police in Philadelphia has joined an equal if not greater outcry of officers in New York.
Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, the killer of officers Wenjian Liu, 32, and Rafael Ramos, 40, had a history of violence and mental instability. He shot the officers as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn on Saturday before he ran to a subway station and shot himself. Only hours earlier, he shot and wounded his 29-year-old ex-girlfriend, Shaneka Thompson, at her home in Baltimore, Maryland. After shooting Thompson, Brinsley threatened on Instagram to kill police officers while referencing the New York and Missouri grand jury decisions: “They Take 1 of Ours… Let’s Take 2 of Theirs #ShootThePolice #RIPEricGarner #RIPMike Brown. This May Be My Final Post.”
Before the murders, Brinsley reportedly struck up a conversation with two men. According to the police, he asked the men “for their gang affiliation; he asked them to follow him on Instagram; and then he says: ‘Watch what I’m going to do.'” That is when he walked past the patrol car, circled it and then crossed the street to come up behind the car. That is when he fired four bullets through the front passenger window, killing the officers.
Police directed their anger in part at de Blasio who has been viewed as supporting the protests against police after the decision of the New York grand jury. The Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association even went as far as having officers to sign a petition calling for Mr de Blasio to be barred from attending their funerals if they were killed in the line of duty. There is also a growing racial rift over de Blasio’s policies. A poll last week found seventy percent of black people approved of the mayor’s performance while only 32 percent of white people supported him. Yet, he had received good polling numbers over his handling of protests following the decisions in New York and Missouri.
Nick Spinelli
The irony of liberals who are opposed to 2nd Amendment rights are then the only people w/ guns are people they hate, cops!
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Nick, you obviously are an intelligent individual, but your tendency to put words into other people’s mouths and to interpret their comments in ways that are opposite what they saying, then attack them for saying something they never said belies your intelligence.
Your tendency also to speak in absolute terms and make everything the fault of Obama by association is a bit tiresome.
So far, it’s been the blacks, then the mayor, then eric holder, then Obama…Nowhere is the awareness present that cops are responsible for their actions, and their actions have been that they have killed an estimated 1000 people this year alone, compared to the the 3 in Japan, and the one in Germany. Don’t they have black people too?
By the way, DBQ is the one who brought up slavery,only to dismiss its legacies.
What is silly Nick is your constant abuse of my positions. Gene never needed any help in deciding who won his debates or discussions, especially when dealing with you. As a good attorney, I will keep speaking my mind and calling out every time that you are not dealing with the truth by presenting the truth. By the way, was that comment about a “good attorney” a veiled insult Nick?
And the real irony is for someone who claims that I and other liberals or progressives are against the First Amendment, you suggest that I should remain silent!
Paul C. Schulte
po – you need to catch up on your history and forget the mythology. Which party was in charge of the South? Which party started the War on Poverty and has yet to win it? Which party wants to ‘enslave’ people by keeping them tied to government handouts?
Frankly, Democrats are dead without the poor. They are losing whites by the boatload. Just speaking truth to power here.
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Come on, Paul, I expect better from you. This is your stock answer to anything that relates to our early history, trying to tie the current Democratic party to the sins of their fathers.
You know damn well that both parties are losing people to the independents, that white people are disillusioned with both parties and the more often you repeat that lie, the more obviously you make the case for your intellectual dishonesty.
Do you really believe that the reason Black people live in the ghetto is because the democrats put them there?
po – statistics have shown that whites in the Democratic Party are becoming a significant minority. And Democrats have done a great job of ghettoizing blacks and keeping them there. I have never figured out why blacks continually vote and support the party that keeps them down.
Obama called Bratton to give him his full support and IGNORED the mayor. Pois smell blood in the water like sharks. De Blasio is swimming alone!!
Paul C Schulte.
I have a message for you on the Tony Abbott thread.
Waiting to watch De Blasio answer reporter questions @ a presser.
The irony of liberals who are opposed to 2nd Amendment rights are then the only people w/ guns are people they hate, cops!
In 1992 there were 2200 murders in NYC, the majority black. The murder rate now is ~300 annually. That is THOUSANDS of black lives saved by good police work in NYC.
I was channeling your buddy, Gene. He would announce he won EVERY debate and you and others would give him pats on the back. It really is silly, isn’t it??? Wear your “Badge of honor” w/ pride. Being proud your dysfunctional and soon bankrupt state was last to afford people their 2nd Amendment rights is just another example of you hating the 2nd Amendment. A good attorney would strongly advise you to remain silent.
Quiet not quite.
The ‘troof’ is elusive.
I was awhile getting around to the torture thread which has now gone quite so to ensure that my post gets seen I post a link here.
Nick,
You are amazing person who can decide for all parties involved, who “won” a debate or a discussion. I am not looking to win anything. I am merely concerned with your continual misrepresentation of my positions and my statements. The fact that Illinois was the last state to allow conceal carry is a badge of honor for me. The fact that the Chicago ordinance was declared unconstitutional has no bearing on whether someone is a Second Amendment “hater”. The idea that I am also against the First Amendment is also one of your imaginary quests.
ChipS, You’re correct. I thought we had a prez who followed the Constitution. Mea culpa.
Nurses kill in the double digits before they’re canned. One nurse killed 90 times more people than officer Wilson. And WTF does it matter if you’re killed by a gun or lethal doses of drugs??
Rules? Binding Obama? Be serious, nick. The only thing stopping that nomination is that the Reid-led Senate is no longer in session.
The only problem w/ de Blasio being appointed ambassador is you have to pass a background check for classified materials. We know he can’t.
Paul C. Schulte – heard some interesting stats on NPR this morning. Dems have dropped to 26%, (Race not specified) Reps are at 23% and Independents are now at 41%.
I have had a concern since I heard what was said at the protests last week. “What do we want – Dead Cops – When do we want it – now”. I read that Freedom of Speech does not include the right “to incite actions that would harm others” Schenck v. United States. 249 U.S. 47 (1919). It is obvious that this rhetoric did cause harm to others – two police officers were assassinated. Shouldn’t the organizers of these protests be held accountable? The Police should have received support from politicians and they didn’t get it until two officers were murdered. Now it seems insincere.
Hey they give a whole new meaning to the term community policing.
Good idea. Nobody gets abused by la Policia Nacional Revolucionaria