By Patricia Mazzei
Miami Herald
MIAMI, Fla. — A Miami-Dade firefighter demoted last year for ranting on Facebook about the Trayvon Martin case should get his captain’s rank back, an arbitrator has ruled, rebuffing Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who had insisted on the punishment.
Brian Beckmann had been demoted two ranks, from captain to firefighter, after posting about Trayvon, the unarmed Miami Gardens teen who was shot and killed in an Orlando suburb in February 2012. In his post, Beckmann referred to “urban youths” as the products of “failed, sh--bag, ignorant, pathetic, welfare dependent excuses for parents.”
Beckmann filed a union grievance disputing the demotion. In a pair of hearings earlier this year, then-Fire Chief William “Shorty” Bryson testified that he had intended to suspend Beckmann for 14 days, but agreed to the more-serious demotion following Gimenez’s instructions.
Full story: Miami-Dade ordered to restore demoted firefighter’s rank