Paramus Suspends Employee For Facebook Comments
Here is a very interesting story coming right out of Northeast New Jersey today:
PARAMUS, N.J. - Paramus officials have suspended without pay a public employee who posted comments about President Barack Obama and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on his Facebook page.
Christopher Petronzio works in the Shade Tree and Parks Commission.
Petronzio tells The Record of Bergen County the comments were taken out of context and the borough is retaliating against him because he is an active member of a union that is suing the town.
Petronzio posted a greeting on Monday, Martin Luther King Day, saying, “Chris would like to wish everyone a happy James Earl Ray day.” Ray is the man who assassinated King.
The page also included a Kentucky Fried Chicken ad superimposed on a picture of the White House and a racist slur referring to Obama.
Borough Administrator Anthony Iacono says the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and Paramus police are investigating whether the posting could be considered a bias crime.
This story interests me on a couple of levels. For one thing it’s a warning for members of Facebook Nation. The site is a terrific way to find old friends and keep in touch but what you say and do on your Facebook page easily can come around to bite you even if it is more innocent than this.
More importantly, though, I am troubled that someone could find themselves potentially out of a job for freely expressing their thoughts on a Facebook page. Make no mistake, I am not defending nor do I condone in any way what Mr. Petronzio posted on his Facebook page. This is merely to analyze the issue in the context of freedom and legality.
Now, I am not a lawyer but I would think that it’s arguable that Facebook isn’t even a completely public forum. For example, the only people with access to your ’status updates’ or items you have posted on your home page, as Mr. Petronzio did, are people you have agreed to be ‘friends’ with. In this sense, one’s page is private.
Additionally, the concept that one’s freely expressed thoughts, no matter how despicable, can be rendered a crime strikes me as tyrannical and in conflict with our 1st Amendment. This is not endangering someone by yelling ‘Fire!’ in a crowded movie theater. This is just someone exercising their freedom of speech.
So, I’m curious what others have tosay about this story and the issues surrounding it. Fire away!
If it was a picture of Bush with horns on his head or getting shot in the face, he would be praised for it. By the way Barack Obama promises on his website that he will increase hate-crime legislation. I wonder what that’s going to look like.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:06 pmI am a lawyer. If these allegations are true they are despicable acts. That being said his statements are protected by the first amendment. Provided there were no threats to a living person then the prosecuter would be wrong to go after him and could probably be sued for violating this clowns civil rights. Further if his government employer fires him for it they will open themselved up to a civil rights lawsuit that has an extremely good chance of succeeding.
The fact of the matter is that the First Amendment was meant to protect unpopular speech.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:18 pmNothing on the internet is private. I’m not a lawyer either but I’m pretty sure Facebook is ill equipped to protect anybody’s privacy. Furthermore, in New Jersey you can be dismissed from a job for any number of shallow reasons. Perhaps a lawyer may confirm or deny me but I don’t think we are afforded the privileges outlined in the first amendment in the work place. This fellow from Paramus is lucky he wasn’t fired.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:26 pm…sorry, after I submitted my comment I saw that a lawyer had actually chimed in. Well, Michael L, you make a reference to this fellow’s “government employer“, do the same protections apply to private employers? Thanks…
January 21st, 2009 at 8:30 pmMichael L.:
I respectfully believe that the answer is not so clear cut as you say. Government as an employer has more latitude to punish someone for speech than it would in its traditional, police power role.
If this were a private employer, it would be pretty clear cut that the employer could fire the guy for engaging in such speech.
It is true that because this employer is a governemnt the issue becomes more complicated. There is long body of caselaw on this issue that goes all the way to the US Supreme Court. I do not remember offhand what the applicable legal test is.
As an aside, I will say that this is just one more pitfall of government acting beyond its proper functions. This situation is similar to the one involving searches of lockers (and students) in public schools. While there would be no question that a private employer could engage in such actions, having a government actor involved unecessarily complicates the legal analysis.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:37 pmNo the same rights generally do
not apply to a private employee. Ed is correct that because of the employee / employer relationship the first amendment protection is not as strong. But remember this was not said at work and has nothing to do with his work. It is a private political statement made outside of work. I think the Paramus is buying a law suit.
If paramus can fire him for this where do you draw the line? Could he be fired for saying Obama is a Communist? (For instance)
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September 19th, 2009 at 11:47 am