No Free Speech At Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office
Posted on Sunday, 7 of September , 2008 at 11:22 am
PINELLAS COUNTY—Apparently the sheriff and chief deputy of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department need an introduction to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
You know, the one that guarantees freedom of speech.
Ever been accused of being too blunt, of speaking your mind too honestly?
Pinellas County detention deputy George Loeffler posted a message on the “Ask The Executive Staff” portion of the department’s intranet site and got fired for expressing his opinion.
Loeffler, who thought he was expressing his opinion anonymously found himself fingered by his IP number after sheriff Jim Coats and chief deputy Robert Gualtieri in particular were angered that they had been called liars. Gualtieri ordered the department’s technology people to determine the identity of the poster which was done by IP numbers. As a result of an internal affairs investigation, Loeffler was deemed insubordinate.
Gualtieri is also the department’s attorney.
In a sheriff’s memorandum released last week, it was announced that Loeffler had resigned but said if he had not, he would have been fired for making alleged defamatory remarks about Coats and Gualtieri.
Loeffler posted his comment on the department’s intranet site after he became aware of media reports that said there would be no further layoffs. He wrote, “Sheriff Coats, one thing I have learned from you and the chief deputy is that if your lips are moving you are lying. You may be able to pull the wool over the general public, but those of us who work in this agency know you for what you are”.
Management claims that there will be no more layoffs.
Unfortunately for Loeffler, he chose to express his opinion about management while he was on duty on July 25. The big boys claimed their feelings were hurt because Loeffler called them liars, stating in their memo that “the significance of the potential damage, caused by that message, to the morale and well-being of the members of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office cannot be overstated, particularly in light of the fact that the basis of the content of the message was inaccurate”.
Perhaps Coats and Gualtieri need to grow up.
Most at-will employees can be fired for complaining in public about their boss or workplace as long as the termination isn’t related to the employee’s race, faith, union activities or such. But employees of the government, such as the sheriff’s office are protected by the First Amendment.
In the case of Leoffler, his criticism wasn’t public, it was aimed directly at the “executives” and done anonymously on a feedback form available to only a few.
The Supreme Court has upheld an employee’s right to criticism in such cases as Pickering v. Board of Education in which a public school teacher was reinstated after being fired for writing a critical letter to the editor about the board of education, her employer.
Jonathan Zittrain, a professor at Harvard Law School has explained that “speech is protected from government censorship, not private censorship”. 9-7-08
Category: Constitution, Florida, Government, Labor, Opinion, Police, Technology
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Meneame -
- Digg
COPYRIGHT 2007 - NORTH COUNTRY GAZETTE All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of the publisher.
