Sorry, but this really is a mistake. The sheriff’s office, as an organ of the Florida state government, has to respect the 14th Amendment due process and equal protection clauses, and with it the First Amendment. So if the Miami Dolphins decide to take a knee and violate their terms of employment while in a stadium owned and managed by their employee, unless the owner decides to fire the lot of them and have them removed from the premises right before a game for said violation, the sheriff’s office cannot do squat. Now it really is a free speech issue, thanks to some overzealous cops.
Actually, it’s the ongoing special protection detail that’s against 14th Amendment rules. The police are not supposed to provide more protection to one group of people than others.
Also, with many such jobs, the officers are working security off-duty as a side job with the permission of their departments. They are basically unionized private security guards at that point and they are perfectly free to walk en masse.
IT has never been a free speech issue.
The players are employees, on company time.
The owners have every right to determine appropriate workplace behavior.
And players that “speak out” for a lie that encourages violence against police officers deserve nothing.
From the article, it sounds like the escorts were not in the officer’s job description and were voluntary.
so the NFL reaps what it sows.
The officers get to have free speech too.
Would you require the Sheriff's office personnel to escort you to and from the grocery store! And, every other citizen?
Sheriff and police departments are required by the Constitution to escort football teams?
You are 100% correct.
And just where, exactly, is it written that a public law enforcement agency is required to provide private security for a sports team?
It’s certainly not an equal protection issue.