Jefferson County, Texas, Employee Fired Over Black Lives Matter Facebook Post

(TNS) -- A social media post from a criminal court coordinator has Jefferson County, Texas, leaders rethinking a social media policy draft that has yet to reach a public forum.

Patricia Kloefkorn, court coordinator for State District Judge Raquel West, made comments about the Black Lives Matter movement in a Sunday Facebook post, in which she accused President Barack Obama of creating the environment that led to recent killings of police officers in Texas and Louisiana.

Kloefkorn said Black Lives Matter protesters should "get a job," and "since when did being black ... give you the right to shoot people."

West was not immediately available for comment.

Kloefkorn was fired July 19, West wrote in a prepared statement, citing the court's integrity as her top priority.

"Inappropriate and offensive comments made by court personnel will not be tolerated," West said.

Jefferson County does not have a countywide social media policy, though the sheriff's office recently adopted one of its own, said Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Kennedy, who runs the office's civil division.

Kennedy said while county employees maintain First Amendment rights, "government employers can restrict speech that affect the entity's operations."

©2016 the Beaumont Enterprise (Beaumont, Texas) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.