Philadelphia didn’t violate rights of cops fired over offensive Facebook posts, court rules

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia police department did not violate the First Amendment rights of several officers who were fired or suspended for racist and violent social media posts. That is the ruling a federal judge issued Monday, just days before the case was set to go to trial. U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone determined the officers’ posts and comments were “likely to cause significant interference” with the police department and the city’s operations and did not constitute protected speech. The officers’ social media accounts were included in a database, published in 2019, that catalogued thousands of bigoted or violent posts by active-duty and former police officers in several states.