By Chris Powell
Nearly everyone in Connecticut knows that the first rule of employment with state government is that no one can be fired. State government itself should know this most of all.
Nearly everyone in Connecticut also knows that the state and federal constitutions confer freedom of expression to people in their personal lives. State government also should know this better than anyone else.
So what explains the case of state correctional officer Anthony Marlak, who was fired in 2021 and in February was reinstated with back pay on the order of a labor arbiter? Predictably enough, the arbiter decided that Marlak’s dismissal was excessive and replaced it with a suspension of just 25 days.
The case seems to be another one of political correctness that took offense at something posted at the social media internet site Facebook.
In 2017 Marlak posted at Facebook an image of five Middle Eastern-looking men being hanged. The image had a caption that is disputed, since the post is no longer available. It was either “Islamic wind chimes” or “ISIS wind chimes.”
Four years later the Connecticut Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations called for Marlak to be fired for the post. The Correction Department duly obliged, telling him in a termination letter that “the type of speech posted threatens the safety of staff and inmates who are Muslim.”
The department’s claim was ridiculous. While the image and caption might be construed as politically offensive, they did not threaten anyone. The image and caption just as easily might have been construed as political comment on the division in Islam between the peaceful, tolerant faction and the theocratic fascist faction.
But making distinctions and defending freedom of expression are losing propositions in politics and government these days. Taking offense trumps everything when it can be followed up with charges of “hate” and “discrimination.” So Marlak was fired and appealed.
While finding that the state did not prove its claim that Marlak had disparaged Islam, the arbiter was no particular friend of free expression. He wrote: “This right is not an absolute and must be balanced with the employer’s ability to run an efficient and effective entity.”
Despite finding that the state did not prove its case against Marlak, the arbiter punished him with a 25-day suspension anyway — typical of the racket that is state labor arbitration, making the employee give back a month of what will turn out to be a two-year paid vacation. The back pay owed to Marlak is estimated at $170,000.
There is a better way of managing this. Conduct the arbitration of employee discipline before imposition of the penalty. Or would state employees resent losing their shot at extra-long paid vacations?
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PARDON TRUMP?: Writing in the Hartford Courant, Rafaele Fierro, a professor of history and government at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, offers what might seem like a great idea for restoring civility to politics.
Fierro would have President Biden issue former President Donald Trump a pardon for all violations of federal criminal law he may have committed, just as President Gerald Ford pardoned former President Richard Nixon to push the country past the bitterness arising from the Watergate scandal. A pardon might make Biden seem statesmanlike and benign.
Of course most fellow Democrats might freak out, afflicted, as they are, with Trump Derangement Syndrome, which is causing them to fantasize about many criminal prosecutions of Trump far more serious than the one just launched by the Manhattan district attorney involving hush-money payments to a pornography actress. Many Democrats seem to be as determined to put Trump behind bars as many Democrats were determined to put Nixon behind bars almost 50 years ago.
But such a pardon might cause Trump himself to freak out even more. In some respects he has been persecuted ever since taking office, but now he seems to enjoy railing against the persecution and using it to regain his leadership of the Republican Party. So he well might refuse the pardon and challenge Democrats to come get him.
It all could make politics irrelevant to the serious challenges facing the nation.
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Chris Powell (CPowell@JournalInquirer.com) is a columnist for the Journal Inquirer in Manchester, Connecticut.
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Chris Powell column 