We have previously discussed the increasing trend toward monitoring and disciplining private and public employees for comments on social media. These cases raise difficult questions of free speech in our society. The most recent such case involves Leslie Anderson, a law clerk for a New Jersey judge who resigned after being suspended after she made comments on Facebook criticizing a state trooper who was killed in a crash with a deer. While some praised 24-year-old Anthony Raspa (left) as a hero, Anderson also expressed sympathy for the dead animal, saying “I agree that it is sad and heart-wrenching for the family members left to suffer the consequences of the trooper’s recklessness—especially for the deer family who lost a mommy or daddy or baby deer.”
It is not clear how Anderson viewed the trooper as reckless in the accident since such accidents can occur without any fault of the driver on many roads. Raspa and partner Gene Hong were patrolling on I-195 when their Ford Crown Victoria struck the deer early Saturday. The car careened off the road and hit a tree.
Anderson, a law clerk for Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Travis L. Francis was without question over-the-top in her Facebook posting: “Not that sad, and certainly not ‘tragic,’ Troopers were probably traveling at a dangerously high speed as per usual. Totally preventable. At least they didn’t take any of the citizens they were sworn to serve and protect with them.” She later added that the praise Raspa was receiving by other commenters for his service as “absurd” and “nonsensical” :
“The ‘victim’s’ employment as a state trooper is irrelevant to the circumstances, other than the fact that he injured a fellow trooper and destroyed state property as a result of his recklessness. He wasn’t running into a burning building or otherwise acting within the course of his employment at the time of the accident. The outcry and ‘thank yous’ are absurd, nonsensical, and completely unwarranted. There are people in this country and around the world dying for much less. There is nothing ‘tragic’ about this. Get over yourselves and your sense of entitlement, people . . .
Nonetheless, I agree that it is sad and heart wrenching for the family members left to suffer the consequences of the Trooper’s recklessness — especially for the deer family who lost a mommy or daddy or baby deer.”
The question is not whether these comments are wrong or offensive but the right of someone to engage in such a public debate without fear of retaliation.
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) students (here, 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 prior career in the adult entertainment industry (here).
The question for me is whether she used her court association, which does not appear to be the case. If Anderson was simply engaging in a public discourse, I am concerned that she would be punished for it. She was initially put on a paid suspension before she ultimately resigned under fire from the police association and others. President Chris Burgos insisted that the comments showed that Anderson couldn’t be impartial, but she was merely a law clerk, not the judge.
What do you think?
I agree with DBQ. In this instance, I do not believe that the termination of the law clerk in question implicates free speech concerns.
Whot? Did someone say “dogs”, or of course, worse, “horses?”
I. Annie
And Rick, you have proven yourself to be every bit as much a part of the right wing “gang” here as Pogo and Trooper York
Only if we define “right wing gang” as “people who have criticized Annie”.
@Mike Appleton
1. “Nevertheless both of you self-righteously, and gratuitously, have labeled as “cop haters” a handful of people who ”
You are quite wrong on this. In fact, I have never called anyone a cop hater on this or any other blog.
2. “I have never done any statistical studies of “the left’s practice” of anything, and I doubt that you have either.”
No, but others have done so.
The left’s practice of state genocide, for example, is well-documented. Some 100 million citizens were killed by their own leftist governments in the 20th century, for example.
As for the PC shaming practice of using “-phobe” and “hater” and “bigot,” well, to deny these are the go-to terms for the left is rather disingenuous, much as they have had copious use on this blog by Inga, Max, and others..
Indeed, The Global Language Monitor Annual Survey named “-phobe” and “hater” among the top words of the year in 2012.
No one argues that conservatives favored their use.
Be grateful someone hasn’t started talking about guns, horses or dogs….yet.
trooperyork
1, June 5, 2015 at 12:13 pm
That doesn’t work KarenS. It is the goal of the gay mafia to have NAMBLA members become Scout leaders. Haven’t you been paying attention.
**************************
Off topic comment #1.
Once again, the inability to stick to the topic of the post. It boggles the mind.
Several issues: First Amendment freedom of speech. The right of an employer to discipline or even fire an employee for speech that harms the employer. The ability of someone to be able to function in their job when such speech exposes their unsuitability for a job.
As pointed out above bu Lexicat at 12:09 (before descending into the chaos of pedophilia and other unrelated issues) when you are employed in certain areas by certain types of employers you DO give up some of your rights.
” When you accept certain kinds of public employment, one of the things that goes with the job is a certain amount of personal freedom to do things that are not illegal in themselves, but disreputable because of the office you hold.”
It is the nature of her job that makes the disciplining of her speech acceptable. If she were a waitress in a coffee shop or a clerk in a store….no one would care. Because she works in a legal arena and her work product can be tainted by her biases, removing her from her position is understandable.
I have no opinion on whether the weekend contributors are cop haters or anything else. I don’t judge people as a group but rather on the content of their speech or posts.
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OK, I don’t know if this will work here, but I thought we might need a cuteness break from all the angst of gang warfare. Totally off topic.
Rick:
I don’t comment on many posts on many topics. First, I still work for a living. Second, I am not interested in literally every story that appears here. Third, I am not some sort of self-appointed defensor fidei. I responded here because it was suggested that I and the other weekend contributors are cop-haters (I’m sure Darren was surprised). Were you to assert that the weekend contributors to this blog are pedophiles, I would likely have something to say about that as well.
And Rick, you have proven yourself to be every bit as much a part of the right wing “gang” here as Pogo and Trooper York. You’re very quick to point out the speck in other’s eyes and ignore the plank in your own.
Inga – you don’t have a plank in your eye, you have a damn house@!
I don’t think all of the weekend contributors are cop haters. Darren is definitely not one.
I do think that Professor Turley’s choice of posts certainly would lead one to believe he is a cop hater. So any of the weekend contributors who pick up that cudgel are in the right “gang” so to speak.
Rick, Trooper York and Pogo both have said numerous times that Democrats and gay people support pedophilia. This isn’t the first time TY has brought up Nambla and the “Gay Mafia”. Yet you remain silent. Do you not see your own hypocrisy chastising Mike Appleton for remaining silent?
Paul Schulte:
The last time I belonged to a gang, I signed my name with an “N.S.J.” at the end of it. But I’m happy to see a Jesuit finally at the helm of the Church.
Mike – maybe you, Pogo and I should trade bad Jebe jokes.
Mike Appleton
I don’t belong to any gangs.
Your bullets fly, but only at one gang.
You take offense at the claim that someone is a cop-hater, yet have nothing to say when someone claims Republicans support pedophiles.
So I’d say it’s closer to seeking deniability than actually seeing yourself as not part of the gang.
@NickS and Pogo
Well, since we are on the topic of politically correct speech, I thought you guys might enjoy this ,which I found at Free Republic
https://birtherthinktank.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/jenner.jpg
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Rick:
I view this blog as a forum for the exchange of ideas and opinions. It has too often become an arena in which people choose sides and engage in gang warfare. I don’t belong to any gangs.
Mike – I have seen you throwing gang signs before. You belong to a couple of gangs. 😉
Mike Appleton
I will not stand by as individuals like the two of you use vile epithets to describe a handful of people whom neither of you know,
But you will stand by as people who share your politics use vile epithets to describe others they don’t know.
Noted.
Then we have this.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jailbait
Rick:
If you have been around here any length of time, you would have come across comments from me criticizing speech codes, campus speech police and hate crimes legislation. And I suspect that I occupy a position that is further to the left of most posters here.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephebophilia
Then again, he also is an ephebophiliac.
Inga – Ephebophilia went out of use in the mid 1900s.