Across the Country, Capitol Hill Rioters Face Repercussions at Work
A printing company in Maryland saw the photo on Twitter the night of Jan. 6: an employee roaming the halls of the U.S. Capitol with a company badge around his neck. He was fired the next day.
Others are facing similar repercussions at work for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Some business owners are being trashed on social media and their establishments boycotted, while rank-and-file employees at other businesses have been fired.
The printing company, Navistar Direct Marketing, declined to name the worker but said it can’t offer employment to people “demonstrating dangerous conduct that endangers the health and safety of others.”
Wired reported on Jan. 16 that more than 100 people have been arrested since Jan. 6, when loyalists to outgoing President Donald Trump disrupted lawmakers as they met to confirm the Electoral College results and President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. People on social media have been trying to identify rioters photographed or filmed at the Capitol, pressuring companies that employ them to fire them.
At a data analytics firm in suburban Chicago, the employee in question was the top boss. Cogensia fired CEO Bradley Rukstales for his participation in the riot.
“This decision was made because Rukstales’ actions were inconsistent with the core values of Cogensia,” said newly named acting CEO Joel Schiltz in a statement. “Cogensia condemns what occurred at the U.S. Capitol … and we intend to continue to embrace the values of integrity, diversity and transparency in our business operations, and expect all employees to embrace those values as well.”
Rukstales, who was arrested for unlawful entry, told a local CBS news channel that he had entered the Capitol and apologized for his role in the events. Calls and emails to Rukstales weren’t returned.
A Cleveland school occupational therapist resigned from the district after her alleged involvement in the riot. A spokeswoman for a fire department near Orlando, Florida, said one of its firefighters was being investigated for his participation. Sanford Fire Department firefighter Andy Williams has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome, said spokeswoman Bianca Gillett.
Insurance Journal reported that the CEO of Texas-based personal lines insurance agency Goosehead Insurance fired an employee after seeing a video of him at the riot. According to a posting on Goosehead’s Twitter account, Paul Davis, who was associate general counsel, was no longer with the firm on the day after the riot.
Reports on Twitter by Roger Sollenberger, a writer at Salon, indicated the firing happened after Davis posted a photo of himself on Instagram, claiming that he was tear gassed at the Capitol.
Insurance Journal confirmed the dismissal with a company vice president. A copy of an internal company email from CEO Mark Jones obtained by Insurance Journal confirms the firing was due to the former executive’s alleged participation in the violence at the Capitol.
“While we support our employees’ right to vote and express themselves politically, we do not condone violent or illegal acts. This one former employee’s actions are not reflective of our company culture or values, and we are disappointed with his behavior,” Jones said in the email.
Most private employers can fire workers for attending protests, since First Amendment rights only prohibit people from being punished by the government for their speech, not by a private employer, said Susan Kline, an Indianapolis-based labor and employment attorney at law firm Faegre Drinker.
There are some exceptions: Those who work for the government may be more legally protected, and so too are many unionized workers, who typically have a contract listing the reasons for which they could be fired. And some states may have laws that protect workers’ free speech.
But “what people did at the Capitol … was rioting, not protesting,” said Aaron Holt, a labor and employment attorney with law firm Cozen O’Connor. “When someone violates the law, that’s almost never going to be protected, and a private employer is going to be within their rights to discipline or take some kind of action in response to that [which] might go against their fundamental core values.”
Business Backlash
Small businesses are also facing backlash on online review sites such as Yelp, which flagged at least 20 businesses for unusual review activity related to the rioting at the Capitol.
One business, Becky’s Flowers in Midland, Texas, is owned by Jenny Cudd, a former mayoral candidate who posted a video on Facebook bragging about breaking into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. By Jan. 8, Cudd’s flower shop was flooded with dozens of one-star reviews in which she was called a traitor and domestic terrorist, along with photos of her inside the Capitol.
Cudd later said in a video message to The Associated Press that she didn’t personally go into Pelosi’s office or see people break down the door, and that when she said “we,” she meant all of the people who were at the Capitol. She said she didn’t do anything violent or destroy any property.
“I walked through an open door into the Capitol along with several hundred other people,” Cudd said. She added that she had “received several death threats along with thousands of one-star reviews from across the country of people who have never frequented my business.”
Yelp has flagged businesses for unusual review activity following less egregious but still controversial events. Reviewers raged on the Yelp page of Virginia restaurant The Red Hen after it booted former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders from its establishment a few years ago. And commenters from the left and right bombarded Big Apple Pizza’s Yelp page with political beliefs after former President Barack Obama was enthusiastically hugged by a customer there.
Social media has outed people for their involvement in activities outside of the workplace, landing them in trouble with their employers. In 2017 after a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, many posted photos on social media of those who participated, leading in some cases to their firing.
In Louisiana, customers said they would boycott supermarket chain Rouses Market after retired owner Donald Rouse was shown in a photo at the Jan. 6 riot. Rouse said in an email that he attended the rally as a supporter of the president but left before the violence began.
“I’m horrified by the violence and destruction we saw yesterday and the pain it has caused so many,” Rouse said. “Our country desperately needs to come together to heal, and I will do everything I can to be a part of that process.”
The Krewe of Red Beans, a group that organizes parades, posted on Instagram that it would return $20,000 in donations it received from the market.