Summary
According to a story on MSNBC , a police officer in Bozeman, MT was forced to resign over a facebook post he made on his personal account. The post read "I wish we were allowed to arrest people for being stupid". The posting came to light when a Bozeman man filed a lawsuit against the city, this officer, and a couple others; claiming that he was wrongfully arrested. The man claimed that this officers facebook posting indicates a lack of respect for citizens rights, and a willingness to abuse his position of power.
Response
I personally think that this story is ridiculous beyond comprehension. What person has not complained about there job, or fantasized about having more power to increase the enjoyability of their job? How many waitress wish they had the power to tell an unruly customer to take a hike? How many teachers wish they had the authority to give the troublemakers in their class, the 'boot'? I personally am an avid facebook "venter", and I would hope that most half way intelligent people could tell the difference between fact and 'venting'. If anything, this man filing the lawsuit, is claiming that he falls into the stupid category and that he was discriminated against for being stupid. The shear idea of the lawsuit, in my book, makes a pretty convincing argument for that man's stupidity. Sometimes I feel that our system has become more a game of who can manipulate the facts more to their benefit, rather than upholding the laws of the land. It truly disappoints my faith in society when I see or hear of such things happening
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You are completely correct on this. Facebook is a place where you can open up and say what you think. At least I think it is. If this person filing the lawsuit feels truly offened by this then he IS saying I AM STUPID to the entire world. He also goes to prove that people think that they can sue anyone for anything even there opinion. Which in my eyes makes for a very sad life.
ReplyDeleteYou might want to consider this: Facebook is a *public* forum. Unless you set it up to be private, ANYBODY can read it. It's gotten to the point where employers will do a Facebook/Myspace search on prospective employees to see just who they'd really be hiring.
ReplyDeleteYou might find the article in the top blog post on the class example blog interesting. You can find that at http://mosoclassobservations.blogspot.com/
Come on! last time I looked this was still a free country. I don't care what the guy says he still should have the right to say it. I mean what ever happened to free speech.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about everyone has to vent and let everything out, but I also think that you have to be careful when you are in a certain position. Obviously it might come back to haunt you, even if it shouldn't have been a big deal in the first place.
ReplyDelete