Norfolk PD May Have Violated Officer’s Speech Rights by Firing Him over Rittenhouse Donation
“I don’t have any doubt that what the city did was … inappropriate and illegal and violated the man’s First Amendment rights,” said Hogge, who has been in contact with Kelly’s lawyer, and may help represent Kelly in the grievance process.
Kelly is one of nine police officers and other public employees outed by The Guardian last week for making contributions to fundraisers and legal defense funds for embattled officers involved in on-duty shootings and for Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager who shot and killed two people after traveling to Kenosha, Wisc. to protect businesses during the riots in the city last August. Rittenhouse is facing homicide charges, but his lawyers have said that “without the shadow of a doubt” he acted in self-defense.
The public employees outed by The Guardian appear to have all made their contributions anonymously, but their personal information was revealed due to a GiveSendGo data breach, and leaked to reporters by the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets.
Besides Kelly, it appears that none of the other public employees outed by The Guardian faced any serious reprimands from their employers, and at least one of the people named in the story had already left his job as an officer at the time he made a contribution. Many of the employers told National Review that they don’t have any specific policies prohibiting their employees from making contributions to controversial charitable causes.
“I don’t have any doubt that what the city did was … inappropriate and illegal and violated the man’s First Amendment rights,” said Hogge, who has been in contact with Kelly’s lawyer, and may help represent Kelly in the grievance process.
Kelly is one of nine police officers and other public employees outed by The Guardian last week for making contributions to fundraisers and legal defense funds for embattled officers involved in on-duty shootings and for Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager who shot and killed two people after traveling to Kenosha, Wisc. to protect businesses during the riots in the city last August. Rittenhouse is facing homicide charges, but his lawyers have said that “without the shadow of a doubt” he acted in self-defense.
The public employees outed by The Guardian appear to have all made their contributions anonymously, but their personal information was revealed due to a GiveSendGo data breach, and leaked to reporters by the transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets.
Besides Kelly, it appears that none of the other public employees outed by The Guardian faced any serious reprimands from their employers, and at least one of the people named in the story had already left his job as an officer at the time he made a contribution. Many of the employers told National Review that they don’t have any specific policies prohibiting their employees from making contributions to controversial charitable causes.
