A Tennessee cop who was suspended without pay last year for posting a racist comment on Facebook is suing for back pay and damages, claiming his First Amendment rights were violated since he was off-duty on his personal computer. “Yeah, I think if the government pays reparations, then I want a refund for the slaves my ancestors lost,” wrote Memphis Police Sgt. Brandon Lea on February 26, 2025. A Memphis police sergeant is suing after he was suspended without pay for making a racist comment on Facebook. (Photo: Facebook) Lea, who has worked for the Memphis Police Department for 25 years, claims in his lawsuit that he was only joking when he posted the comment, describing it as “a satirical comment on a parody account that comedically addressed the topic of slavery and government reparations.” But the joke fell flat on many residents of the majority-Black city that became a national focal point of police abuse against Black people in 2023 following the brutal beating death of Tyre Nichols. ‘Back Up! You Wanna Bring It?’: White Woman Arrested After Video Shows Attacking 13-Year-Old Black Girl in Park Over Argument with Son Lea deactivated his page following the blowback, so it’s not clear to what post he was referring to when he made the comment. But it may have been a conversation about how Shelby County, which includes Memphis, had approved a $5 million reparations resolution in 2023 to use federal COVID relief funds for descendants of enslaved people. Tennessee Republican legislators tried to ban the effort at the state level but failed. The $5 million ended up being distributed to six Black-led nonprofits across the county, local media reported in November 2024. Lea posted his comment to Facebook three months later. According to his lawsuit. Following Plaintiff’s post, MPD received 2 or 3 citizen complaints regarding Plaintiff’s comment. The citizens who complained about Plaintiff’s comment had been able to see from Plaintiff’s Facebook page that he worked for the MPD. Instead of reaching out to Plaintiff to have a discussion regarding his comment, these citizens contacted MPD to express their offense to Plaintiff’s comment and sought for Plaintiff to be disciplined by the MPD.  MPD imposed a total of fifteen (15) days suspension without pay and required Plaintiff to undergo sensitivity training, ordering him off work from April 25 through May 15, 2025. ‘Culture of Impunity’ Several white residents defended Lea, with one person telling local media that “nobody can take a joke,” but the city’s Black residents did not find it funny. “We hold people in leadership positions at a high level… he should have said that in the privacy of his own home… Not posted it on Facebook,” a Black resident told local media. The Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope, a nonprofit pushing for “systemic change through collective action,” also expressed their concerns. “The fact that it came from a Memphis police department officer clearly identified him as such shows a culture of impunity within the police department, but unfortunately, it’s something that we as Memphians have so long experienced and just come to expect,” the organization said in a statement to local media at the time. But Lea maintains his $91,843.96 salary as of January 2025, according to city payroll records where he is listed as “Lea, Brandon Wayne.” “But the fact that Plaintiff’s speech may be viewed as controversial or uncomfortable to MPD, as well as to some citizens, does not trump Plaintiff’s First Amendment rights to free speech,” Lea’s lawsuit states. “As a direct result of Defendant’s retaliation, Plaintiff lost wages and benefits, suffered reputational harm, emotional distress, and impairment of future career prospects.” But considering Lea did not lose his job, he got off easy, considering more than 600 people, including government employees, were fired last year for criticizing Charlie Kirk in the weeks following his assassination in September. One retired cop was even jailed for 37 days over a Facebook post criticizing Kirk after he was charged with felony recklessly threatening mass violence at a school. But the charge was dismissed, and he is now suing. Case Law Many of the fired employees have also filed lawsuits against their former employees with most lawsuits still pending. Earlier this week, an Iowa school teacher who was fired in September was approved by a judge for unemployment compensation after being denied. But several other government employees have pending federal lawsuits against their former employers. There have been several court cases over the years regarding government employees fired for what they argue were exercising their First Amendment rights, even before the rise of social media. According to an article posted on the website of a labor and employment law firm, former government employees have a stronger legal basis to sue compared to private sector employers because the First Amendment protects against the government’s curtailment of free speech. For more than half a century, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Pickering v. Board of Education (1968) has provided the framework to evaluate public employees’ free speech rights under the First Amendment. Courts ask two threshold questions: Was the employee speaking as a private citizen or as part of their official job duties? Was the speech on a matter of public concern, rather than a purely personal workplace grievance? If both are true, the court balances the employee’s right to free speech against the government’s interest in maintaining efficient and effective operations. So the question that must be addressed by the courts is whether a police officer making a racially insensitive comment would affect the Memphis Police Department’s efforts to maintain public trust, which has long been fraught. ‘Refund for the Slaves My Ancestors Lost’: Memphis Police Sergeant Sues After Suspension Over Racist Post, Claims He’s the Victim ...read more read less