Beaufort Co. fire official’s profane social media comments lead to new rules, chief says
The chief of the Burton Fire District is refusing to say whether the department’s public information officer will be disciplined for a profanity-laden post he published on his personal Facebook page this week.
Chief Harry Rountree said Wednesday that the agency now has new social media rules but would not say whether Capt. Daniel Byrne would face discipline or reprimand, saying it is a personnel issue.
In comments on one of his public Facebook posts Monday, Byrne wrote that Democrats “keep getting voted into f---ing office by emotional f---ing weak b----es who cry at every f---ing SOB f---ing story,” and later called the person he was arguing with a “liberal b----.” In previous posts, which also were public, he’s used profanity and derogatory language deriding specific congresswomen while praising President Donald Trump. He says it’s his constitutional right, that no one has complained, and that he should be allowed to post on his personal social media accounts his opinions on the direction of the country.
Rountree said the Burton Fire District didn’t previously have a social media policy governing protocol for employees’ use. The agency now has a written policy received from the department’s insurance agency as of Wednesday, Rountree said.
Asked whether Byrne’s comments raise questions about his ability to credibly serve the Burton community, Rountree said the comments were Byrne’s personal views and not made under the authority or on behalf of the fire department.
The profane comments were no longer visible Wednesday afternoon.
Byrne said Tuesday the only directives firefighters had were to refrain from posting photos or other sensitive information from emergencies that might violate federal health privacy laws.
Byrne, a Marine Corps veteran, is the public face of a department that serves more than 20,000 people in unincorporated areas of northern Beaufort County west of Beaufort and Port Royal to the Seabrook area. Byrne helped start and promotes the JACOB Kit program, which provides training and supplies for schools to stop bleeding in the case of a mass shooting or similar traumatic event. He has spoken at firefighting conferences about public relations and is a contributor to a firefighting publication where he has written about best practices for social media and firefighters’ roles as community mediators.
Asked about his Facebook comments Tuesday, Byrne said the argument was with a family member and stems from a sensitive family issue after the death of his mother. He said the comments and other political posts don’t compromise his ability to do his job.
“All I can say is I regret my family business got aired out in that fashion,” Byrne said. “I should have used better judgment in having an emotional argument....Out of 20 years of service to Beaufort County if (people) want to take that one heated discussion and define me by that, they have every right to do that. I am sorry for that; I can’t do anything about that.”
Other public safety officials have come under scrutiny for social media posts recently.
A Jasper County firefighter is no longer employed by the department after an anti-white supremacy group raised questions about posts attacking refugees and sexual minorities and accused him of being a Nazi sympathizer. And a white Jasper County Sheriff’s Office deputy resigned last year after using a racist slur in an Instagram post.
Nationally, public employees also have faced consequences for controversial posts on social media. According to a 2017 story in the American Bar Association’s journal,
• A fire captain in Austin, Texas, was suspended after posting inflammatory political opinions regarding Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama on Facebook.
• A Mount Vernon, New York, fire lieutenant was suspended for an Instagram post expressing support for Micah Johnson, who killed five Dallas police officers and wounded seven others in a sniper attack.
• A New Rochelle, New York, police sergeant was suspended because of a Facebook post criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement and protesters.
Byrne has regularly posted about politics to his personal Facebook page in messages that are public and available for anyone to read. His most recent posts Wednesday, when Rountree said the social media policy would take effect, were no longer public, visible only to people connected with Byrne on the social networking site.
The new rules do not appear to expressly prohibit the type of comments Byrne made this week and don’t address expressing political views. The document says it’s not intended to curb employees’ speech except in certain circumstances.
Under the new policy:
- Harassment and threats aren’t allowed.
- Rountree is the only person who can make statements on behalf of the department, though he can designate people to speak about particular matters.
- Firefighters and other personnel are urged not to make negative comments about the department, its procedures or personnel. Comments directed at individuals should make clear the person isn’t speaking on behalf of the agency.
Violating the new rules can lead to being fired.
Byrne is a former assistant fire chief with the Georgia National Guard and has received awards for his public relations and education campaigns, according to a biography on firehouse.com, where he is a contributor.
He has written for the website about fire prevention and risk reduction, the importance of fire departments embracing social media and in 2017 wrote a column about how firefighters can help unite communities during divisive times.
In that 2017 column, he wrote that the country was divided along racial, political, religious and gender lines and that “anger and tension appear to rule the day. ...
“Our badge has a power that can transform communities and the lives of the citizens within it,” he wrote. The badge “can hold a nation divided together by proving to all that there are still people who are ready and willing to do the right thing simply because it is the right thing — the humane thing — to do. ... Live it every day, in uniform and out of uniform, because each day is an opportunity to touch the life of another.”
