Andrew Shirvell, the Michigan assistant attorney general who was banned from the campus of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor this fall because of his public hostility toward the student body president, has been fired from his state job, The Ann Arbor News reported. Mr. Shirvell has shown up at public events to denounce the student leader, Chris Armstrong, for pursuing a “radical homosexual agenda,” and has defended his actions as protected speech under the First Amendment. But in firing Mr. Shirvell on Monday, the state’s attorney general said his behavior went beyond free speech and bordered on criminal stalking. In September, the university banned Mr. Shirvell from the campus; the ban was partially lifted last week.
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“This entry was posted in Uncategorized.” Should have been posted in “What Took Them So Long?”
Here, here, tee_bee.
What took so long? Michigan’s attorney general, Mike Cox, was no doubt waiting for last Tuesday’s election to be over. Wouldn’t want to be soft on homosexuality, so dragged his feet on the hearing that was held last Friday. Shirvell should have been canned a long time ago.
His actions did not “border on criminal stalking”; they WERE criminal stalking. I’m appalled it took Cox as long as it did to fire Shirvell; the guy should be behind bars, not in a cushy government position.
I suppose this is nitpicking, but “cushy government position” doesn’t sound like an accurate description of “assistant attorney general.” The man is clearly troubled, as we say, but denigrating Michigan law enforcement hardly seems justified by his actions.
I support his right to have his views but imagine if they could not fire him if Shirvell didn’t harass Armstrong during work hours. This is clearly an abuse of power. Needless to say, I’m happy get got sacked. I think there were some people who wanted to disbar Shirvell for doing this. There was a poll on it just now http://my-take.com/poll/should-he-be-disbarred . I’m not sure about disbarring him but he should never hold public office again.
It is abundantly clear that Shirvell is so obsessed in his homophobia that he should have been sent for counseling at the least. Someone like him clearly would not be impartial in his prosecutions of say, anyone who may be gay or he suspected of being gay. How could he have made it this far in life without there being a red flag somewhere that this guy had such an obssession? He can now go get a job with one of those right-wing anti-everything organizations.
First: Prosecutors have full time jobs 24/7, 365 days a year.
Second: Prosecutors do not have “cushy” jobs. Neither do public defenders, for that matter.
Third: Prosecutors give up their First Amendment speech rights when they take their positions. They certainly have personal opinions, but are strongly restricted by codes of ethics which do not apply to most other attorneys, including judges.
To the extent this blurb and the accompanying comments are true (I don’t know) then he should have been fired.
A tiny point, but the original post credits a newspaper, the Ann Arbor News, that no longer exists. The article was from annarbor.com.