Former Greensboro Fire Captain Dustin Jones appealed his termination to City Manager Tai Jaiyoba and his appeal was denied.
The denial of Jones’ appeal by Jaiyeoba is a good indication of why the state House voted to establish a Civil Service Review Board for Greensboro to give employees another option to appeal employment actions such as termination.
The letter from Jaiyeoba upholding the termination of Jones is what you would expect. Jones was fired because he continued to exercise his right to express conservative political views on his personal Facebook page, even after being told to stop expressing those views by his superiors.
According to the letter, the termination was based on social media posts made by Jones. Only one of those had to do with work and, that was posting photos Jones took of a “structure fire” and posted to his “social media platform” in 2021.
According to the letter, Jones was warned and went through counseling about his Facebook posts but continued to express his opinions on his Facebook page, even though those opinions were not in line with the political views of city leadership.
American citizens do not give up their right to freedom of expression when they accept employment with the City of Greensboro.
The First Amendment recognizes that people have the right to express their views even if they are outside the mainstream or, in this case, contrary to those of the city administration.
One of the issues that Jaiyeoba uses to validate the firing of Jones is that Jones posted memes on his personal Facebook page that indicated he did not believe that someone born male could become a female.
This is in keeping with the beliefs expressed by the North Carolina Republican state House members in voting for House Bill 574, “The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” and in direct opposition to the views expressed by the Democratic House members voting against the bill.
The NC House passed HB 574 with all 73 Republicans House members voting in favor and 39 of 40 Democrats voting against. One Democrat voted with the Republican majority.
The bill states that in middle school, high school and community college, only females may participate on women’s or girls’ teams. The bill states, “For the purposes of this sub-subdivision, a student’s sex shall be recognized based solely on the student’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
In other words, someone who was born male cannot become a woman and participate in women’s sports regardless of surgery or hormone treatment.
If in fact, a male can become a female then it stands to reason that they should be able to participate on women’s and girls’ teams.
This is a hot political issue that is being debated all over the country. States with Republican legislatures are passing bills similar to HB 574. Recently, Texas became the 19th state to ban gender affirming medication and surgery for those under 18. States with Democratic legislatures are establishing laws that allow biological males to participate in women’s or girls’ sports if they identify as women.
It is a hotly contested political issue with votes usually following closely along party lines.
The vote in the NC state House is indicative of just how widely separated the two major parties in this country are on the issue.
Eight of the nine members of the Greensboro City Council are Democrats. Mayor Nancy Vaughan is the former executive director of the Guilford Green Foundation, which according to its website is an organization to “advance LGBTQ persons and issues.”
According to Jaiyeoba, Jones was counseled on keeping his views on this hotly contested political issue that run counter to the views of the leadership of the City of Greensboro to himself. According to the city manager’s letter, Jones refused to do so and therefore his termination was justified.
Sad that open bigotry is considered political speech. But love how John now tells the entire story after a comment from a reader pointed out the bias in his first article on the subject. I expected better from Hammer. Yet another news source to view with a skeptics eye.
It’s the 79th Anniversary of D-Day. Those guys gave their lives so that we can publicly express sentiments that hypocrites like you consider bigotry.
And it’s not bigotry to believe that a male is a male and a female is a female.
Yup. you are indeed a bigot for believing that people in the LGBTQ community are perverts. This is well established argument between the two of us.
Freedom of speech is freedom above all for those whose views you dislike most.
–Peter Hitchens
He is free to say what he wants but NOT free from the consequences given that his employer is free to terminate his employment for speech considered unprofessional. A white supremist is free to speak about his hate of minorities and even have a tattoo of a swastika on his face…but he is NOT free from the consequences such a difficulty finding employment.
Don’t mistake freedom of action for freedom from consequences of your actions.
Bigotry?
That’s a big reach.
What do you consider open bigotry. Someone’s personal opinion.
Anyone who disagrees with Saint Chris and his pompous PC progressivism is deemed to be a bigot – – by him.
Talk about narrow minded and smug….
Yes, certain types of opinions will have you classified as either bigot or racist….As defined by Websters: Bigotry is obstinate or unreasonable attachment to a belief, opinion, or faction, in particular prejudice against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.
Austin openly believes (is of the opinion) that the LGBTQ community are perverts that don’t belong in society with the same and equal rights as everyone else. Ergo he is a bigot. Not complicated.
So if I don’t agree that a human being born one gender then becomes another gender is right and I say this thought out loud then I’m a bigot. What about your opinion and what you say in print about Alan, Austin and myself what does that make you Chris
Don’t you dare put words in my mouth, you odious, sly little man.
Sexual perverts should enjoy the same political rights as everyone else – but they ARE perverts,by definition.
YOU are a despicable disingenuous demagogue – and the biggest bigot in these columns.
I had no idea when we moved to Greensboro that it was run by a cabal of totalitarians. First Amendment rights be damned if you work for the GSO machine. I sincerely hope he appeals to the state as this type of chicanery cannot be tolerated. It is one thing if you have an overabundance of veteran firefighters, but I doubt that is the case.
I just puked. Let’s play the race card game. Is Jones a wasp?
Greensboro has become super progressive. Of course, the city will fail at their progressive bent. Unfortunately, the fall will be a slow fall and in the meanwhile good people will leave the city and businesses will shy away because no business wants interference from a progressive government. I believe that in their heart of hearts most, if not all, on the City Council and others in leadership roles do not believe in this LGBTQ nonsense, which is worse than actually believing it because their actions are political, plastic and deceiving. They have no soul.
A Civil Service Review Board was designed with a city like Greensboro in mind. I feel confident that in the meetings between Captain Dustin Jones, HR and the manager, aspects of Captain Jones’ Facebook page were twisted and distorted to make his writings fit HR and the manager’s narrative to justify his firing. I wish Captain Dustin Jones well.
The taxes will be the city’s downfall far before any woke policy spats. As an ex-conservative, the spending of this city is really an issue that is not sustainable.
We agree on that. For the first time ever I have considered moving out of Greensboro. I pay a lot of property tax. I am not sure that I am getting a return on my investment.
The high taxes are because of the woke agenda.
Explain what spending (other than the overspending on MWBE which is a small % of the budget)
Is school spending woke? Is police and fire woke? Are county services such as Parks, Infrastructure and woke?
Define woke and how it is linked to taxes or are you just parroting your Shepards conservative talking points like a good little sheep? I bet you don’t even know how the City of Greensboro spending is broken down by department. (hint you can find online).
Yes, Greensboro has a spending problem. But I don’t see the link to woke programs as much as over administration and basic inefficiencies in service management.
Supporting blm, allowing them to paint blm on the street and the city provides the paint, giving millions to the money pit museum and several other non profits with no accountability, raising taxes and fees every year to pay for all these give away freebies as it’s free money, hiring an incompetent manager at an outrageous salary all the while giving a pittance to other city employees. This is the “woke” city of Greensboro Chris
You’re so stupid you can’t even spell shepherd, Genius Boy.
“No Counter-Revolutionary reactionaries vill be allowed to speak! Zey must remain silent if zey want to keep zheir jobs!”
—-
Jaiyeoba is a vindictive totalitarian, but we shouldn’t be surprised; he is an African Marxist. Communism is not a pluralistic or tolerant doctrine. It begins by silencing its critics and ends by killing them.
Well put Austin. Glad I could provide a small bit of inspiration for your very witty reply.
Have a great day and keep up the fight.
Thanks Alan!
I guess the inspiration you believe you provided came from your habitual renaming of the American Democratic Party as the “National Socialist Democratic Party”. I agree wholeheartedly that they are closet fascists, but the correct name of Hitler’s party was literally translated as: National Socialist German Workers’ Party (abbreviated at the time as the NSDAP) and forever termed ‘the Nazis’ by dear old Winston.
The strength of the post-war institutional Left can be gauged by their ability to characterize that movement as right wing, when it was contemporaneously clearly a party of the far Left (hint: the name is a clue).
—
Keep up the good work.
Cheers!
– Austin
And thank you Austin.
I modified the NSDAP name to fit our current Left mob since they basically are similar.
You keep up as well…the coffee offer stands
I’ll match that and raise you! How about I buy you a beer?
I like Jake’s Billiards on Mondays or Wednesdays.
Since you hate being labeled without agreement, make your case that Jaiyeoba is a Marxist…bet you can’t. How about the idea that he supports communism? Just more hollow name calling from a proven (and self-admitted) bigot. He is certainly an awful city manager…but I have yet to hear him state that production systems should be owned by the State or that he wants to eliminate the bourgeoisie classes from society.
Well he wouldn’t say that publicly, would he?
When it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.
PS I have never said that I am a bigot (because I’m not). That’s just another flight of fancy from your fertile and febrile imagination.
It must be an interesting little world you live in.
I feel pity for you.
I can see a huge payoff coming. The bad thing is the taxpayers will be the ones paying for it. And yet we keep voting these idiots into office.
I hope there is basis for lawsuit and Jones cashes in.
Greensboro Politicians are like so many others, their version of our Constitution doesn’t include the 1st Amendment. I hope this winds up going to the Supreme Court
When did the city council become the group to say their employees have to give up their first amendment right to work for the city.
I would recommend that we as Greensboro and Guilford County residents vote out all these corrupt democrats and vote in all Liberal or Conservatives.
Democrats have proven themselves to be Wicked people and they do not care about the average person in the city and county.
It’s hard for me to understand why anyone would even consider any vote for any Democrat. They are totally corrupt
So, he mostly lied about why he got canned. You indicate to this is a first amendment issue, it isn’t. And yes, your employer can indeed regulate your public social media. And, what does any of this have to do trans athletes?
1 – What lie? He was fired for social media
2- Govt suppression of speech is precisely a first amendment issue
3 – One of his comments was related to trans-people, so that is how it is tied to trans-athletes
Brilliant trenchant rebuttal !
So very well said
No, an employer cannot “regulate” an employee’s public social media. Indeed an employer can and will use public social medial posts against an employee who fails to toe the line. However, what is written on social media is protected speech. Employers should be prohibited from firing an employee based solely on social media posts. This is a subjective reason that can be used to fire people who cannot be fired for an objective reason. There are other reasons to consider, job performance, experience, strong work ethic. This is an ideal case to be brought before a Civil Service Review Board.
This HAS already been litigated:
On March 4, 2021, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed a decision of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania which ruled in Ellis v. Bank of New York Mellon Corp. that an employee could be discharged by her employer based on her social media posts.
Your comment changes nothing in my response. Please read again.
Watching for the appeal
If Mr. Jones has a legal offense fund, I will gladly contribute to it. It is beyond time to combat this democrat lunacy.
If anybody is surprised by this, they’ve been living under a rock for quite a while.
(Come to think of it, my theory is the overwhelming majority of them fall into the category of (NS)DP membership)
My hope is this what should be an illegal act of revenge will be appealed and overturned. This also brings up what I view as State sponsored censorship and a clear violation of people’s 1st Amendment rights. I know people will begin pushing back saying there are prices people will pay for speaking their minds, and as it applies to private organizations that is for the courts to hash out, but here we are talking about a public government entity. A government OF the People, BY the People, FOR the People. Just because you choose to work for the government does not mean you cannot express personal opinions publicly. The online world has opened a whole new world that has a very fuzzy line between governments, government employees, and those same employees rights as private citizen.
Unless there is some sort of written document that is signed by a government employee, or what could be a clear violation of classified, or personal information being revealed that could endanger someone or something, there is no reason why a government employee cannot and should not be punished for publicly expressing their PERSONAL opinion on any subject.
I didn’t spend 20+ years of my life defending Socialism/Communism.
Law on this is fairly clear. An employer can terminate employment based on any behavior they consider inappropriate or that reflect poorly on the organization. This guy was warned more than once it seems and he decided to fall on the sword over this issue. Amazing how people will toss away a career just to maintain a public proclamation of their bigotry. End of day, he was given a choice. If anything, he showed himself as uncatchable to his leadership.
But hey, he will have more time to share his bigoted views online. So there is that for his free speech.
Oh my goodness. Mr. Hammer, not only do you express a lack of knowledge about the U.S. Constitution, but a complete lack of common sense. Every job, and i mean every job, has restrictions that an employee must abide by as a condition of employment. As for the constitutional “right” to say anything, at any time, regardless of it’s effects or truthfulness, this has never been upheld by any court in the U.S. If you are categorically opposed to any restrictions imposed on the people in a democracy, i can only guess that you would prefer an autocracy. May i suggest the Soviet Union as a place to consider for your retirement.
It is a bit different when the employer is the govt.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that yelling “fire” in a crowded theater is not protected speech. I know of no other prohibition.
I got a different impression from the letter. also, I would have thought a journalist would be better at proof reading their articles. they’re bad. oof.
John Hammer, I appreciate your coverage of local elections, budgets, and the nuts and bolts of local government, city counsel meetings, etc. This article hardly counts as journalism, and I believe you can do better. Whether someone identifies as male or female is of no concern to anyone besides them, and the fiscal conservatives risk loosing the popular vote if they continue to dog whistle to the cis-gendered, homophobic demographic. From the sound of it, Mr Jones continued to buck his superiors and neglected to keep things agreeable and polite. Perhaps he learned something?
Do you honestly believe that the LGBTQ issue is a nonissue? Do you really believe that the issue should not be in a particular print because that is your opinion? An issue that is so divisive? Do you really believe that the only conservatives are fiscal conservatives? What is “agreeable and polite?” There was no mention in the letter that Captain Jones was not “agreeable and polite” in the workplace. John, my guess is that you have a bias against Captain Jones. What lesson might Captain Jones have learned from his experience, that the city of Greensboro does not appreciate an employee who does not toe the line when toeing the line has nothing to do with job performance?
The only issue is that the conservatives have made LGBTQ an issue and are yet again trying to restrict the rights of a minority group. What have LGBTQ people done to harm society? The myth of ‘them’ grooming children to become gay or trans is a lie used by conservative candidates to distract from their lack of solutions to the real issues facing the country such as lack of affordable healthcare, increased separation of wealth, access to affordable housing, climate change, etc….
Obviously John you’re heads been in the kitty litter box for a while, a persons preference of sexual identity has been in the headlines and on just about every state’s legislative agenda for quite awhile now.
At least Hammer told the full story this time after getting called out by a previous comment from a reader.
The City should never assume the risk of another huge lawsuit after the Hinson show several years ago. A very knowledgeable, respected, and highly esteemed Police Chief was lost in that debacle.
COG stand behind your employees and allow freedom of speech. It is not worth the risk to let this escalate. Learn from the past.
Let it go! Hinson is dead and believe me the officers did not have that chief’s back. He should have never changed the schedule.
Really DTF did you like hinson that much or just hate the people who supported the chief I’m thinking the former.
Wow, censoring posts?
Jaiyeobe validates his firing of Jones by citing Jones’s belief that a person born male cannot subsequently become female. This has been perfectly obvious for millennia, and remains factually correct. A human born with an X chromosome and a Y chromosome cannot mutate into human with two X chromosomes, regardless of how much self-mutilation they perform.
When did this become controversial?
When did expressing this belief become cause for dismissal?
People on the Left pretend to be tolerant and liberal, but in truth they are the most intolerant, authoritarian individuals you will ever meet. In every way, they crave the power to order other people around – especially those who dare to disagree with them.
Can you imagine the uproar (and citing of the 1st Amendment) if a Republican had fired a gay employee for publicly celebrating his sexuality?
Gender identity conflict has been well document and researched since the early 19th century. You continue to use your ignorance of understanding sex and gender as being two separate things…but selective ignorance is kinda your jam i suppose.
But for good humor…While sex refers to the biological and physical characteristics (that you are harping about in your comment) that typically distinguish males from females, gender encompasses the roles, behaviors, activities, and expectations that society attributes to individuals based on their sex.
Your comment about the uproar over a Republican firing of a gay person actually used to happen very regularly. The military is the easiest example. Hence the uproar and long running movement by the gay pride groups that have largely won over the courts and overall US population to enact laws protecting the communities’ equal rights. Such a right to legally marry. Social pressures have limited such firings and many states offer formal legal employment protections (NC does not)….so the debate goes on…
What perfect BS from a perfect imbecile.
Again, Austin is unable to respond with anything other than name calling. That is when you know you have shared facts that he can’t deny or refute with any real information. LOL what a joke.
But you are the one who slanders us as “bigots”, “racists”, “fools” “moonshine swilling rednecks”, and “haters”, aren’t you?
So… who is REALLY the jerk who likes to sling mud?
Despite the Fire Department claiming they counseled him several times, there is only 1 such counseling session documented. How do we really know they counseled him as much as they claim?
They lie, Elizza. They lie chronically, continually, and consistently.
They are part of the state apparatus of power. They know they are invulnerable.
Why would he be counseled for posting a picture of a burning structure on his personal Facebook page
With all these comments, I think there should be a new sign put up at Mt. Hope Church Road that says ; WELCOME to Greensboro,N.C. the Baltimore of the South!
Some comments show confusion between free speech and firing an employee. Captain Jones has a constitutional right to free speech including his Facebook postings. That cannot be legitimately denied. However, an employer can fire someone for the writings the employer disagrees with. Chris has conflated the two. Chris’ citing of a court case decision is about an employer’s right to fire someone regardless of free speech not because of a lack of free speech. NC is a right-to-work state with a goal to weaken unions. Why do you think corporations are flocking to RTW states? Corporations and government love being able to fire someone for any reason or no reason at all. RTW gives them this right. There is no protection for an employee in a RTW state. There are anti-discrimination laws, but these laws do not protect white straight men. It is easy to fire a white straight man in NC. The rest of the population has one law or another to protect them. A dirty little secret is that employers will tolerate unacceptable behavior from protected classes because the employers do not want the hassle of dealing with the conflict, EEOC and/or lawsuits or threat of a lawsuit from self-serving attorneys.
You are confusing free speech with speech free of consequences. But you be you.
The constitution guarantees there will be no law restricting your ability to speak your mind. There is no law that stopped this captain from sharing his thoughts on FB. But the constitution doesn’t protect you from consequences of sharing your thoughts online by say your employer, society as a whole, or from church and family, etc…. Just no legal consequences.
Keep trying. You will get there one day.