From Winterbauer v. City of St. Louis, decided yesterday by Judge Maria Lanahan (E.D. Mo.):
Christina Winterbauer was a civilian employee of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Division, Department of Public Safety where she worked as a dispatcher. During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, Winterbauer made a private Facebook post commentating on the situation in St. Louis. The post read:
And so it begins! Got a call yesterday on my day off, was told when I go back to work Tuesday, we will be on Mandatory 12 hours shifts, All because a bunch of Animals don't know when enough is enough!! This is my 3rd time working through Protesting & Riots since Ferguson 6 years ago!! I'm tired of my life being turned upside down, my work schedule changing (not by my choice), plans I had made changing, because these Mofo's are out of control! I suffer from anxiety & it has been really bad since all this protesting started here, worrying about our Officer's & my Co-Worker's getting to & from work safety! I'm afraid to drive to work due to not knowing if I'm going to run into a protest or being shot at because I'm white, yes they are targeting us white people because of the color of our skin! With that being said, to all of you supporters of this Crime, Looting & Destruction going on in our City & others, I hope you're happy with it all & screw you as well, now I'm angry because once again my life is now effected from this shit! This is how I feel about all of it so if you don't like it, too bad, press the unfriend button, because I promise you I will not lose sleep over it!!
I ask you to pray for all of us First Responders through this, that we all make it to work safely & back home to our families safely! Pray for this madness to end, watch your backs, be aware or your surroundings, because this is some scary shit going on out on the streets!
God Bless us all!!!
The post was subsequently shared with local media by an anonymous third party. Winterbauer alleges that there was no internal backlash to her post, and that it did not disrupt the department. In response to the post, the Department terminated Winterbauer.
Winterbauer sued, and the court allowed her claim to go forward:
