Free Speech for Cops
Unless you’ve been out of the country on vacation (and congratulations if that’s the case), you might have seen a story or two in the paper about police, emails, and social media.
In San Francisco, police are struggling to deal with an ongoing email controversy involving racially and sexually charged emails and texts sent by and to police officers.
Now, in Baltimore, a high-ranking local police union official has filed a lawsuit, alleging he was retaliated against because he engaged police critics on social media.
Lt. Victor Gearhart—with the backing of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3—argues his reassignment was “retaliation against him for lawfully exercising his constitutional right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment,” and calls the department’s social media policy “overbroad, vague, and otherwise unconstitutional.”
“THUGS always act like THUGS” and “demonstrators act like animals,” Gearhart tweeted after the unrest in Baltimore started.
Gearhart also tweeted that both State’s Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby, and her husband, City Councilman Nick Mosby, should be “deported” from the country.
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