Ryan Dettra's lawyer, a Mr. Rumrell, should never have agreed to the reprimand.
Ryan Dettra's rights were violated by St. Johns County.
No dumb 'ole "policy" trumps the First Amendment. I've read the file on the case, and the policies that the County purports to rely on.
These are authoritarians who would prefer robots to ethical, thinking employees.
They know not that they know not that they know not.
The County Administrator is thin-skinned and must never retaliate again.
The whole world is watching.
This "incident" (they actually wrote up an "Incident Report") was a tempest in a teapot. Ryan Dettra had a First Amendment right to share his concerns with the St. Augustine WRecKord, which must defend his rights to speak out.
Dr. Karl Z. Morgan, the father of radiation protection wrote before his death: "No society that severely restricts freedom of speech will ultimately survive."
As the State Constitutions of Tennessee, New Hampshire and North Carolina state: "Government being instituted for the common benefit, the doctrine of non-resistance against arbitrary power and oppression is absurd, slavish and destructive of the good and happiness of humankind."
As Robert Kennedy said, "If our Constitution had followed the style of Saint Paul, it would have said, 'But the greatest of these is speech.” In the darkness of tyranny, this is the key to the sunlight. If it is granted, all doors open. If it is withheld, none.'" --- Robert F. Kennedy, January 22, 1963, Center for Study of Democratic Institutions.
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