Summary
- FBI
fired about 20 agents pictured kneeling at 2020 protest. - Kneeling
was intended to de-escalate tensions during George Floyd protests. - Agents
had no discipline found in 2020 internal review.
According to a source quoted by CBS News, the BBC’s US
partner, the termination letter noted an alleged “lack of judgement”
in their activities. It has been stated that 15 to 20 agents have been fired.
During a protest in 2020, the agents reportedly joined
others in taking a knee. In May of that year, a police officer knelt on the
neck of Floyd, a black man, killing him, causing a worldwide uproar.
The FBI Agents Association claimed that the agents’ rights
had been infringed and denounced the terminations. When the BBC contacted the
FBI, they declined to comment.
The alleged dismissals coincide with the Trump
administration’s efforts to rid the federal government of what it perceives to
be left-wing and “woke” policies and personnel.
On social media at the time, a number of right-wing critics
had criticized agents and police officers who were seen kneeling.
However, their supporters contend that rather than
indicating that the agents shared their opinions, the kneeling was a strategy
to ease tensions with the demonstrators.
Viral footage of Floyd’s killer, white police officer Derek
Chauvin, kneeling
on his neck while he was pinned to the ground for over nine minutes turned the
act into a symbol of protest against racism.
Floyd passed away from a heart attack brought on by severe
neck compression, according to an official post-mortem examination.
Recently, the agency laid off Spencer Evans, a former
special agent in command of the Las Vegas field office, former assistant
director in charge of the Washington field office Steven Jensen, and former
acting director Brian Driscoll.
The three former agents filed a lawsuit against US Attorney
General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel earlier this month, claiming the
officials fired them in order to curry favor with President Donald Trump.
The FBI Agents Association said in a statement Friday that
Patel’s “dangerous new pattern of actions are weakening the Bureau”
and making it “harder to recruit and retain skilled agents – ultimately
putting our nation at greater risk.”
How did the FBI Agents Association respond in detail?
The FBIAA denounced the dismissals as infringements of due
process rights, declaring that the discharged agents were not treated in a fair
or transparent manner.
The group took issue with the leadership of FBI Director
Kash Patel, asserting that the dismissals removed critical institutional
knowledge, diminished trust in the leadership by FBI personnel, and adversely
impacted the FBI’s ability to recruit and retain quality agents.
FBIAA characterized the firings as political retribution,
not disciplinary actions.
They acknowledged that engaging in kneeling was an act of
de-escalation during demonstrator confrontations, and they did not find any
basis for discipline after the event.
