For decades, the Left has sought to use social pressure to discourage Americans from challenging progressive orthodoxy. Increasingly, however, as those old strategies fail, they have turned to outright censorship.
These underhanded tactics have cost far too many Americans their right to free speech, as Missouri argued when then-Attorney General Schmitt filed and led a case against the Biden administration for illegally coercing social media into censoring criticism of the government’s handling of COVID-19, election integrity, and other issues. The struggle against the Left’s vast censorship enterprise will be one of the political battles that defines the next decade. The freedom to speak one’s mind—and in particular, to criticize the people in power—is a central principle of Republican self-government. The Left’s assault on the First Amendment is an assault on the very foundation of the American political tradition itself.
This is not an abstract debate. In many cases, the Left’s censorship has cost hard-working Americans their reputations and jobs. Few know this better than the men and women of law enforcement, whose public-facing role has made them prime targets for leftist cancel culture.
While some states do offer specific protections to prevent such abuse, other states do not, leaving cops, firefighters, and emergency medics at the mercy of mercurial department policies, municipal officials and activists, and the personal views of their supervisors.
Consequently, an alarming number of first responders in recent years have been disciplined, demoted, and even fired for expressing personal and political views deemed controversial. Unsurprisingly, these views almost always run in the same political direction: against the Left.
For example, in 2022, the Boston Police Department tried to fire Officer Joseph Abasciano, an Iraq War veteran who had served in the department since 2007, after he attended President Donald Trump’s rally in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021, and posted on social media in support of the president. Abasciano was off duty at the time of the rally and never participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that followed. These facts were confirmed by two separate department investigations, both of which concluded Abasciano had done nothing wrong. However, Democratic Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s newly appointed Boston Police Department leadership decided to punish him anyway for “conduct unbecoming.”
In 2020, the Nashville Fire Department disciplined and demoted Captain Tracy Turner after he questioned the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19 restrictions on his Facebook page. In an exclusive interview with IW Features, Turner said Democratic officials in city government coordinated with department leadership to charge him with vague policy violations regarding his speech and conduct—violations those officials never bothered to pursue against department employees who had expressed leftist viewpoints.
Turner ended up locked into a four-year-long legal battle against the city, which he ultimately won—to the tune of $1.7 million.
But that grueling battle was mentally and emotionally draining for Turner, who for years had put his mental and physical health on the line for the community he served. What is sad is that there are many more law enforcement officials who may never see the same kind of vindication, who find themselves challenging these infractions in our judicial system but are denied justice.
“There’s so many firemen that have been hurt and punished for having a political opinion,” he told IW Features.
Our firefighters, policemen, and other first responders are the best of us—they are entitled to enjoy the full use of the same basic liberties they fight every day to defend.
The unjust attacks on our frontline heroes cannot continue. Congress must take up and pass the Public Safety Free Speech Act. Under this bill, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and emergency medics would be protected from retaliation for expressing their political and religious beliefs and for voicing their concerns about various workplace issues, such as compensation. The legislation would also make sure law enforcement officials who believe their free speech rights have been violated are able to bring legal action against their employers and win relief, just like Turner.
The Left cannot be allowed to continue weaponizing law enforcement officials’ public roles against them to censor speech they personally dislike. It’s our brave law enforcement officers who have put themselves in danger to protect the safety, security, and health of their loved ones and their communities. Firefighters like Turner, police officers like Abasciano, and countless other first responders put themselves in harm’s way daily to protect their communities. Consistent speech protections are the very least they should receive in return.
The Public Safety Free Speech Act will make sure law enforcement receives those protections, ensuring they can enjoy the same basic rights they help protect.
Sen. Eric Schmitt is a U.S. senator for Missouri and the former Missouri attorney general. Kaylee McGhee White is the editor-in-chief of IW Features, the grassroots storytelling arm of Independent Women.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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