http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/cair-demands-head-of-houston-firefighter-over-facebook-post/

October 2, 2014 by Daniel Greenfield 2 Comments

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam. He is completing a book on the international challenges America faces in the 21st century.

Print This Post

I wouldn’t even call this a post. He seemed to have set, probably, someone else’s image as his profile picture on Facebook. But CAIR is out hunting for heads and politically correct politicians are only too happy to comply.

HOUSTON (KTRK) — An HFD employee is under investigation and on administrative duty because of something he posted on his personal Facebook page.

The post is set to a backdrop of an American flag and reads, “Proud Infidel. F*** Islam and F*** Muslims.” It was posted to his timeline earlier this month, and at one point, it was even his profile picture.
When we brought it to the attention of the Houston Fire Department, Chief Terry Garrison responded with a statement, “As soon as I was made aware of the situation, I adopted a complaint on the matter, launching an internal investigation.”
“Your rights of freedom of speech and freedom of expression stop when you work for somebody, to the extent that there’s policies in place,” said KTRK Legal Analyst, Joel Androphy.

If we took Joel at his word, then freedom of speech would not exist for anyone except freelancers. His way of putting is certainly unnecessarily creepy. Employers can indeed fire employees for any number of reasons, depending on local laws, etc… However government agencies firing employees for their private views opens up a whole other can of worms as Christie found out when a NJ state employee who tore up a Koran in New York was temporarily fired over it.

Ruth Nasrullah, communications coordinator for the Houston office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the posting apparently occurred in the wake of early September’s ISIS beheading of journalist Steven Sotloff.
Houston CAIR Executive Director Mustafaa Carroll said his organization is “disgusted” by the post and called on Fire Chief Terry Garrison to order diversity training for firefighter and, possibly, for the entire 4,000-person department. Carroll also called on the firefighter to make a public apology to Muslims
“Violations of this policy should also be subject to further disciplinary action not to exclude probation, suspension and termination,” Carroll said.

“Our public servants don’t just protect one part of society. They protect all of us. They help all of us. They work for all of us. And it’s very important for us to all feel comfortable dealing with people that have some authority over us,” said Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Executive Director Mustafaa Carroll.

Protecting us doesn’t mean that they have to like us. They can’t possibly like all of us.
This clip from Rescue Me sums up matters nicely. (Language warning.)

“Let me tell you somethin’ the next time I run into a burning building and refuse to bring out anybody who’s not the same color as me, then that’s when you can bring my angry, pink, sober, Irish, ass back down here. Got it?”

The basis HPD is using for the investigation is far shakier than Joel would like us to think.

City Attorney David Feldman said Tuesday that although the material “purportedly” appeared on a private Web page, the firefighter alluded to his city employment and included the fire department logo in his postings.

That’s a weak case. No one is under the impression that an individual firefighter speaks for the department or represents it on his private Facebook page.