You all would remember our dark knight, the lone cyclist who was photographed flipping the bird at Donald Trump’s motorcade as it passed her en route from his Sterling, Va., golf club? Well, no good deed goes unpunished, and that woman, now identified as Juli Briskman, has been fired from her government contracting job since the photo went viral.
According to the Washington Post, the 50-year-old marketing executive gave her bosses at Akima LLC a heads-up after the photo of the then still-unidentified cyclist went viral.
Her bosses then took her to a room and fired her, escorting her out of the building, along with a box of her things.
“I wasn’t even at work when I did that,” Briskman said. “But they told me I violated the code-of-conduct policy.”
Briskman said that when they gave her the boot, her bosses showed her a section of the company’s social media policy, which states “Covered Social Media Activity that contains discriminatory, obscene malicious or threatening content, is knowingly false, create [sic] a hostile work environment, or similar inappropriate or unlawful conduct will not be tolerated and will be subject to discipline up to an [sic] including termination of employment.”
However, Briskman says she isn’t convinced, especially given that she wasn’t wearing anything or doing anything that could have connected her back to the firm. She posted the image to her social media, but her profiles do not connect her to Akima.
To add insult to injury, Briskman told the Post that she was in charge of the firm’s social media presence and that she had recently flagged an employee’s social media use.
According to Briskman, during the summer, she found a public comment by a senior director at the company who was ranting regarding a discussion about Black Lives Matter.
“You’re a fucking Libtard asshole,” the director inserted under the otherwise civil conversation, according to the Post. The profile that he used to make that comment clearly identified him as an employee at Akima.
The “Libtard asshole” he referred to in his comment became so insulted, he challenged the director on the manner in which he chose to represent the company.
Briskman said that she flagged the exchange to senior management. But apparently the good ol’ social media policy didn’t apply to this guy. Rather, he just cleaned up his comment, scrubbed his public profile and kept making his money at Akima.
But Briskman who made her own little public stance, unattached from the company? It was sayonara for her.
Briskman said that fateful day on her bike was not something she had planned, but that she had been increasingly frustrated with Trump’s behavior and his performance (or lack thereof) as the leader of this country.
“Here’s what was going through my head that day: ‘Really? You’re golfing again?’” Briskman said.
She said she had no idea the pool photographer had snapped her photo. But she became aware after a few friends thought they recognized her and tagged her in the photo, asking about it.
“I said, ‘Yeah, that’s me. Isn’t it funny?’” she said.
It turned out many people didn’t think so.
Briskman, who also works part time at a yoga studio, which is something she does mention on social media, began getting threatening emails.
“They told the owner of the studio she should fire me,” she said.
So Briskman removed that from her profile and thought that the situation was handled, but since she knew that a connection had been made between herself and the photo, she thought it prudent to give her bosses at Akima a heads-up.
Except, now we know how that ended.
Briskman has contacted the American Civil Liberties Union about her case, according to the Post.
Read more at the Washington Post.