FBI sued by former agents after they were fired for kneeling during racial justice protest
Twelve federal agents fired by the FBI in September of this year have now sued the bureau in an attempt to reclaim their roles, as they were originally dismissed for kneeling at a racial justice protest over five years ago.
Cuts have been aplenty during US President Donald Trump's second term in office, as departments have been on the receiving end of significant funding cuts alongside mass redundancies if they are deemed to be 'inefficient', 'wasteful', or simply not to the president's taste.
This appears to have affected individual staff members in some of the government's most important areas, as twelve FBI agents were fired by Director Kash Patel in September this year for something they did all the back during Trump's first term.
As reported by the Associated Press, the FBI agents in question took place in a racial justice protest just days after George Floyd was killed at the hands of the Minneapolis police department, kneeling alongside activists with the action being photographed.
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They remained in their roles with seemingly no issue or 'repercussions' for over five years, yet in September Patel relieved them of their duties as they were perceived as not being 'politically affiliated' with President Trump.
The agents have now launched a new lawsuit against the FBI in an attempt to get their jobs back, revealing on Monday (December 8) that their decision to take the knee was not politically motivated but instead was intended to de-escalate a situation of growing danger.
Amid the protests motivated by civil injustice, the agents – lacking both adequate protective gear and appropriate training on crowd control situations – felt that it was the best possible move to take the knee as a de-escalation procedure, and it was deemed to be successful as they could have easily been outnumbered and overwhelmed.
The lawsuit itself claims that the agents "saved American lives" by doing this, as crowds were quickly dispersed and no shots were fired in a situation that could have become out of control.
"Plaintiffs were performing their duties as FBI Special Agents, employing reasonable de-escalation to prevent a potentially deadly confrontation with American citizens: a Washington Massacre that could have rivaled the Boston Massacre in 1770," and any potential violent actions would have likely reverberated across the nation and caused further civil unrest.
Previous internal reviews regarding the agents' decision to take the knee concluded that the move had no political motive and that the situation required no punishment, yet their dismissal at the hands of Patel came, in the government's eyes, as a result of "unprofessional confuct and a lack of impartiality in carrying out duties, leading to the political weaponization of government."
Not only is the lawsuit seeking to reinstate the agents in their previous roles at the FBI, but they have also asked the court to declare the dismissals 'unconstitutional' and issue backpay and damages in the form of financial compensation.