Marshals Suspend Aberdeen Federal Courthouse Guard for Racist Facebooking

Former Aberdeen cop and school resource officer Jeff Carlson has at least a few days off from his retirement gig as a guard at the federal courthouse here in Aberdeen, due to racism:

A contract employee for the U.S. Marshals Service has been suspended from work after posting a burning Black Lives Matter flag on his personal Facebook page.

Jeff Carlson, a retired Aberdeen Police Department and school resource officer, was suspended from his contracted position as a security officer at the District of the South Dakota Federal Courthouse. In his position, he is a contract employee for the U.S. Marshals Service. He was suspended after they were made aware of the “racially-charged social media post,” according to the public affairs office for the U.S. Marshals Service.

“The U.S. Marshals Service has a zero tolerance policy regarding discrimination by any employee in our ranks, contract or federal, as it does not represent our agency’s core values of justice, integrity and service,” the U.S. Marshals Service said in an emailed statement [Rebekah Tuchscherer, “Retired Police Officer Suspended from Work After Posting Burning BLM Flag,” Aberdeen American News via Hub City Radio, 2020.10.19].

Permit me to approach carefully….

Attentive readers of this blog know that the First Amendment protects burning a flag—any flag: national, state, fascist, or redundant—as free expression. The government cannot punish an individual for burning a piece of fabric with a message on it, much less for disseminating a photo of someone else engaging in such an act.

I pause also because I know Jeff Carlson. He goes to my wife’s church. He came to the hospital the night my daughter got sick last year and sat with us during the most awful moment of our lives. Jeff and I have always gotten along fine.

But neither the First Amendment nor my agreeable acquaintance with an individual affect the racist nature of the individual’s free speech—and really, what message is sent by sharing a photo of a burning Black Lives Matter flag besides, “Black lives don’t matter?”—and his employer’s right to view certain speech as evidence that that individual is not fit for continued employment.

The U.S. Marshals Service expresses its rejection of prejudice on the webpage for its Office of Professional Responsibility:

USMS is dedicated to providing exceptional service to the public through a commitment to excellence in job performance. USMS employees are carefully selected, held to the highest standards, and provided with the best training available. We are committed to that objective, recognizing that we do not tolerate prejudice, abuse, or any other improper acts by our agency or its employees [U.S. Marshals Service, Office of Professional Responsibility, retrieved 2020.10.20].

The U.S. Marshals Service, like all law enforcement agencies, have a duty to enforce the laws equally and to build public confidence in the government’s ability to do so. Employees who make racist statements undermine that confidence and cast doubt on their ability to enforce laws equally. Amidst documented concerns that America’s law enforcement agencies are aligning themselves with white supremacists and far-right militants, a responsible law enforcement has to eradicate racism from its ranks. The U.S. Marshals Service is right to suspend Carlson and, at the very least, require him to answer some serious questions from his supervisor about his commitment to racial equality.

Lynne DiSanto had a firing coming when she trashed Black Lives Matter with her ugly racist outburst in 2017. My neighbor Jeff has it coming, too. That’s not cancel culture; that’s expecting professional, unprejudiced conduct from employees serving the public.