Saturday, April 15, 2006

Blogging and employment

It seems that blogging can get you fired from your job. This comes as a shock to some people.

Bill Hobbs was fired recently, and Acidman was fired for blogging, and all manner of military types have been ordered to take down their websites or risk discipline. These are just a few examples.

And none of it bothers me in the least. The First Amendment didn't suffer. Free speech didn't suffer. Lets read the whole thing:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Congress didn't make any laws that abridge the freedom of speech.

One of my ex-bosses explained it to me another way. "You have a perfect right to say anything you want to say. And I have a perfect right to fire your sorry ass if I don't like what you're saying."

Being a deputy sheriff, I know that I serve at the pleasure of the Sheriff. He can fire me for good reason, or for his reasons, or for no reason at all. That is his right as a Sheriff. Keeping that in mind, I watch what I say in this blog. I don't know if the Sheriff reads it. Regardless, I have high regard for the Sheriff, and law enforcement personnel in general, and my department in particular. I'm not going to air grievances that should be kept in-house. Law enforcement makes changes periodically based on the understanding of what is good and proper. The public demands occasionally that law enforcement change. They make that demand known through the ballot box.

The firing of Bill Hobbs didn't affect the First Amendment.

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