APD cop fired for ties to blog
Apparently they don’t mess around with opinions from the municipal employees in Albuquerque. According to krqe.com:
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) – Five years ago, officer Dawne Roberto was being called a hero for rescuing two people trapped in a burning car.
On Tuesday, Roberto was fired from her job after 14 years on the force.
While APD wouldn’t say why Roberto was let go, her attorney John D’Amato says it’s all because of ties to the “Eye On Albuquerque” blog , a blog that’s been highly critical of APD brass and Mayor R.J. Berry’s administration.
D’Amato says Roberto severed all ties with the blog two years ago and told APD who the people behind the site were. He says she never wrote anything disparaging for the blog. Even so, D’Amato says Roberto’s work computer was taken to see if she was working on “Eye On Albuquerque” on the clock and she was fired for “being untruthful” and violating APD’s social media policy.
The APD’s social media policy was established two years ago after officer Trey Economidy came under fire for listing his Facebook occupation as “human waste disposal.”
Economidy was suspended for those comments, but Detective Pete Dwyer was fired for similarly controversial comments made on Myspace and Twitter.
APD Chief Ray Schultz has previously defended the policy as necessary, but on Tuesday, Albuquerque Police Officers Association president Stephanie Lopez said that policy has been applied inconsistently.
“I’ve seen officers that have received a huge suspension from social media sites and then I’ve seen other officers that have received 20 to 30 hours of suspension if anything at all,” Lopez said.
The union will appeal Roberto’s firing.
“Eye On Albuquerque” has mentioned Roberto in two of its postings, the most recent time two years ago.
Does this seem like a little too much control? Should employees have restrictions on what they post on social media and blogs? Let’s open the discussion to all employees, both public and private. Does an employer have the right to expect certain things in relation to social media and blogs? Can there be fireable offenses?
These folks in Albuquerque obviously cannot fight back. In fact, in most places public employees can’t fight back. I am not so sure they can in the private sector either in most cases.
Some of our local public employees undergo a barrage of attacks from local blogs and on Facebook with a fair degree of regularity.
Bloggers and their minions can lie about, put words in someone’s mouth, name call, ridicule and mimic public employees with no opportunity for those employees to defend themselves. That very thing happens here in Prince William County. However, I think all bloggers have a bad habit of taking themselves just a little too seriously. Their minions often talk to themselves, convincing each other of their own importance.
Somewhere there needs to be a happy medium. We need to be able to discuss public policy without the vitriol and politics of personal destruction some bloggers seem to spew and their readers get off on.
Video with a slightly different info
Link to “Eye on Albuquerque” blog
Looks like the sheriffites still think that the old Friar is named Jason. Wrong, A-holes. Not even close.
So finally the plot is unveiled. All this attack politics is so Pete can run for chairman. Polish off enemies and there will be smooth sailing.
Thing is, everyone knows who the sheriff is and what the connections all are. No one is being fooled.
Does anyone find it totally wacko that a certain blogger is telling us what Corey Stewart and Marty Nohe think? Yea, I just bet they sat down and gave the old boy an interview. That is so not going to happen.
Friar, you are right. The plot has been spelled out for the feeble minded. It was obvious to most people. Last I heard, Marty wasn’t planning to run for chairman.
I expect most people don’t want a candidate who relies on anonymous blogs to get elected. Pete can’t beat out Corey. Not even on a good day.
Look at this from the other direction. Would you want your elected folk to have to defend a police officer who labels his profession as “human waste disposal”? Do you even want an officer who thinks about his job that way on the force?
Why anyone bothers with SON is beyond me. An anonymous blogger publishing anonymous tips? Yeah. right. I quit reading that thing ages ago. His singular focus is to grind down the current leadership. It’s mean-spirited and ridiculous.
Beedy makes an excellent point. No one would want to have to defend a cop with that kind of talk or some of the other antics that employees do sometimes.
Its pretty obvious now what the point of that blog is. Grinding down the current leadership might end up backfiring. I certainly will do everything in my limited power to work against that kind of governance. Anyone who misses the fact that one supervisor has all sorts of anonymous mean-spirited blogs popping up around him is blind as a bat, regardless of protests to the contrary.
All the cheap shots are simply cowardly. it’s time to challenge policy without being demeaning. Not sure some folks even know how.