Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Enough Is Enough Already For This Michigan Assistant Attorney General

An assistant attorney general for the Michigan Attorney General's office, Andrew Shirvell, stalked and harassed an openly gay student body president, Chris Armstrong, at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for having what he believed was a "radical homosexual agenda" for months before his employer fired him last Friday. Shirvell publicly called Armstrong a Nazi, a liar and satan's representative. Just weeks earlier, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox defended Shirvell's actions as an exercise of his free speech rights. Here's how Shirvell exercised his free speech rights:

  • Showed up at Armstrong's home three separate times, including once at 1:30 a.m. "That incident is especially telling because it clearly was about harassing Mr. Armstrong, not engaging in free speech," the statement said.
  • "Engaged in behavior that, while not perhaps sufficient to charge criminal stalking, was harassing, uninvited and showed a pattern that was in the everyday sense, stalking."
  • Harassed Armstrong's friends as they were socializing in Ann Arbor.
  • Called Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, Armstrong's employer, in an attempt to "slander Armstrong and ultimately attempting to cause Pelosi to fire Armstrong.
  • Attempted to "out" Armstrong's friends as homosexual — several of whom aren't gay.
Things got so bad at one point that Armstrong sought a protective order to prevent Shirvell from making contact with him, and campus police banned Shirvell from the campus. Shirvell set up a blog to attack Armstrong, which proved part of his undoing because his employer discovered he had been posting to the site during hours he was on the clock for the Michigan Attorney General's office. Shirvell's call to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office in an effort to get Armstrong fired from her staff was also made during work hours an investigation determined. "The cumulative effects of his use of state resources, harassing conduct that is not protected by the First Amendment, and his lies during the disciplinary conference all demonstrate adequate evidence of conduct unbecoming a state employee," the Cox said. "Ultimately, Mr. Shirvell's conduct has brought his termination from state service."

Here are parts of the interview CNN's Anderson Cooper conducted with Shervill, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and Chris Armstrong:

3 comments:

Cato said...

2/5 that Shirvell is in the closet.

Gary R. Welsh said...

I would lay higher odds on that, Cato.

Unknown said...

What's with all of the sodomy defending going on around here?