Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced yesterday that Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran has been terminated after refusing his request to resign. Chief Cochran was suspended for 30 days in November after concerns were raised about comments in his new book, “Who Told You That You Were Naked“, that condemned homosexuality and suggested women should be subservient to their man.
Atlanta News, Weather, Traffic, and Sports | FOX 5
Sorry to see this happen.
Public Policy meets Private Religious a beliefs.
I met Chief Cochrane once at a a Conference in a Northern Califorina, as he was transistioning from his job in Shreveport to Atlanta.
He is a very good motivational speaker as well as his other attributes.
When he took over running the AFD, he was presented with some difficult choices as the economy was going in to recession and he had to deal with staffing and equipment issues that were highlighted in past issues of the “Atlanta Constitution”
Newspaper online.
Whether his takes some kind of legal steps regarding this issue, we’ll see in the future.
But…”When you’re Fire Chief, you’re an ‘At Will’, employee”.
Mike Bryant, a Deputy Chief a Retired, Los Angeles County FD
I wish Chief Cochrane Good Luck, in his next adventure.
I’ve met Chief Cochrane a few times myself and I agree he is very smart and an excellent public speaker. With that being said, he should have known better unless he was purposely trying get himself terminated to make a point. People will often cry “First Amendment!” on issues like this, but it seems pretty cut and dry to me (but I’d appreciate Curt’s opinion as well). The First Amendment simply says the government can’t make laws that prohibit or abridge free speech. Nowhere does it say there can’t be employment consequences from exercising that freedom of speech. I doubt anyone would have dared touch him if he hadn’t identified himself as the Atlanta fire chief in his book and hadn’t (as has been alleged in the media) been handing his book out, unsolicited, to fire department employees while on duty. When you’re an “at will” employee, that’s going through your 9 lives in just a couple of swift moves.
Dom
I have not read the book myself – but I ordered a copy so I can better understand the issues. From what I heard Chief Cochran wrote the book for members of his church as part of his ministry, not for the fire service nor for the general public – even though it became available publicly. If that is true – that certainly puts the book in a different light than what is generally being discussed. It’s not a 1st Amendment “get out of jail” card by any stretch, but certainly a book written about a person’s religion for other folks of the same religion does not require the mayor’s pre-approval!!! That is a 1st Amendment problem known as a prior restraint – that public employees cannot write or say something that has nothing to do with their employment without prior permission – regardless of whether you are a janitor in city hall or the fire chief.
Second, it is unclear to me whether the offensive statements referred to are things that Chief Cochran actually said in the book… or are passages from the Scriptures that he was quoting. There is a huge difference between quoting scriptures and being a bigot. If the statements truly reflect the chief’s intolerance of protected classes (GLBT, women, non-Christians), or his unwillingness to serve ALL the citizens of Atlanta he should rightfully be subject to discipline. If he was merely quoting from the bible – as part of his ministry, then at will or not, he has been terminated over his religious views which is a violation of the 1st Amendment.