PHILADEPHIA - Philadelphia police officers who got into trouble for what they posted on Facebook have lost their First Amendment lawsuit.
Federal judge Wendy Beetlestone's 298-opinion contains much of what the cops put on social media, from memes to comments to shared news stories.
"They speak on a multitude of topics, including race, religion, immigration, sex, gender, policing, penology, vigilantism, just deserts and others," Beetlestone wrote on Oct. 28 when she granted the City summary judgment.
The posts were unearthed by the Plain View Project, which attributed more than 3,000 posts to PPD officers, 593 of which are attributed to the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. CNN, The Philadelphia Inquirer and Buzzfeed took notice, not to mention the City Council.
An internal investigation sought to determine which posts violated PPD's social media policy, which forbids employees from "using ethnic slurs, profanity, personal insults, material that is harassing, defamatory, fraudulent or discriminatory, or other content or communications that would not be acceptable in a City workplace under City or agency policy or practice."
The plaintiffs were found to have violated this policy and most were either fired or resigned. Some were reinstated after appealing their dismissal.
Their lawsuit was filed in 2020 and alleged retaliation in violation of the cops' First Amendment rights.
"(I)t is axiomatic that an employer need not 'allow events to unfold to the extent that the disruption of the office and destruction of working relationships is manifest before taking action' against disruptive employee speech - a reasonable belief that the speech could cause disruption is enough," Beetlestone wrote.
Beetlestone was forced to consider each employee's case separately, given what each shared on Facebook was unique. But they all had a common thread - that they violated PPD's social media policy, she ruled.
Many cops got into trouble for simply sharing memes, while others were penalized for their actual speech. Anthony Anzideo shared a USA Today news article about a deadly shooting in South Carolina and wrote "Hope they track this POS down and take him out."
He served a one-day suspension for that and a few other posts.
"Here, the disruption that Anzideo's posts are likely to cause outweighs his and the public's interest in the posts," Beetlestone wrote.
"He uses phrases like 'animal' and 'POS' ... to refer to criminal suspects and defendants, groups of people whose safety is entrusted to police as part of the core duty of their calling.
"And because Anzideo's posts expressed such disdain for people whose safety he is entrusted with as a police officer, it is highly likely that those posts could be used to impeach his credibility if his testimony was offered at a criminal trial."
The posts of 19 other officers can be seen here in Beetlestone's ruling. Many of them are anti-Islam, including a meme of Muslim men seemingly at an airport or train station that says "You see refugees? I see invaders. Where are the women, children and old people?"
Another said, "I learned everything I needed to know about Islam on 9/11" and the same cop posted a meme that said "Death to Islam."