Boston cop who was fired because of Jan. 6 tweets calling Democrats and some Republicans traitors sues over that and city's denial of a religious exemption for Covid-19 shots

Joseph Abasciano, fired as a Boston cop in 2023 for going to Washington and posting a series of tweets about the "traitors" in the Capitol and across the country before and during the events of Jan. 6, 2021, yesterday sued Boston and its police department, alleging violations of his First Amendment rights to both free speech and religious freedom by a mayor and police commissioner allegedly out to get him.

In his suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, the former West Roxbury resident who now lives in New Hampshire says his tweets, posted under a pseudonym, were an exercise of his First Amendment rights as a private citizen, his "patriots vs. traitors" theme - which included the hope that an election official in Georgia be "dragged away in handcuffs" - was a paraphrase of some of the writing of Ulysses S. Grant, nobody ever protested them save for one anonymous tweet to BPD, he never threatened Mike Pence or members of congress and he never entered the Capitol building or participated in violence when he and another BPD officer traveled to Washington.

Abasciano also charges that the city violated the First Amendment by refusing to grant him a religious exemption for the Covid-19 shots that city employees were ordered to get.

Abasciano is seeking a court order requiring the city to make him a detective - a rank for which he applied but was not allowed to attain - a declaration that Mayor Wu, Police Commissioner Michael Cox and other BPD officers done him wrong and enough damages to make them think twice about ever pulling such a stunt again.

In his complaint, Abasciano details how he was granted leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, through Jan. 23, 2021 to care for his wife, pregnant with their third child - and that in January, 2021, he was also designated as "medically incapacitated" because of a flare up of a knee injury he had suffered in 2014.

He alleges that violence was the furthest thing from his mind when he and officer Jose Diaz traveled to Washington, DC before Congress was scheduled to certify that Joe Biden was indeed elected president, that his "main concern was whether the Constitution was followed correctly" and that despite references to #1776 in his tweets, he was not calling for a revolution, but just for Mike Pence to delay any certification until the legislatures in four states could review their election results.

He says and Diaz were on the opposite side of the Capitol from where gas-spraying, truncheon-wielding "patriots" were smashing their way into the Capitol, beating local cops and erecting a noose for Mike Pence, that the only violence he saw was somebody "take some whacks at a window."

Yes, he acknowledged, at 6:44 that morning, from Washington, he tweeted:

MAGA Millions of Patriots here in DC. Today is a day for choosing. Today there will be only two parties in America. Traitor and Patriots!” #January6 #MAGA #MarchForTrump

But besides having a First Amendment right to speak as a private citizen under a pseudonym, who doesn't know that's a reference to a section of a letter Ulysses S Grant wrote to his father?

Whatever may have been my political opinions before I have but one sentiment now. That is we have a Government, and laws and a flag and they must all be sustained. There are but two parties now, Traitors & Patriots and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter, and I trust, the stronger party.

At 3:54 p.m., the complaint continues, he tweeted at Mike Pence:

I hope you never sleep well again @VP your Treasonous Act led to the murder of an innocent girl and the death of America. You are not a Godly man. I guess @ LLinwood was right about you all along.

Is that a threat? Hardly, he avers.

Police officials, including Cox, who made the ultimate decision to fire Abasciano, however, did not see those tweets as a simple exercise in the First Amendment. In March, 2023 Cox fired Abascione - and two other officers, including a sergeant who helped lead early morning anti-vax screaming sessions outside Mayor Wu's house. In Abascione's case, the rationale provided in a report by a BPD deputy superintendent was that his tweets, which could be read as supporting violence, in particular against elected officials, violated the very core of what it means to be a Boston police officer:

Officer Abasciano is unable to impartially and without bias perform his duties as a sworn member of the Department. Officer Abasciano post [sic] suggests he views the members of the community as either patriots or traitors. The comments indicate a rigid viewpoint that does not recognize the duty to protect the rights of all individuals, rather it divides people as traitors or patriots. Even after Officer Abasciono was aware the rally had degenerated into a criminal riot resulting in at least one death and the destruction of property in the US Capitol, Officer Abasciano continued to use incendiary language and blamed Vice President Pence for the events rather than the criminal rioters showing a lack of commitment to preserving life and property, or respect for our law enforcement partners. I find that Officer Abasciano twitter posts indicate that he is unable or unfit to continue as a member of the Department. ...

Officer Abasciano argued that he was merely engaged in political hyperbole. I was not persuaded. Officer Abasciano used violent and loaded language suggesting a civil war or a violent revolution. Even his use of the Ulysses S Grant quote or the #1776 suggest the use of violence is appropriate to address political disagreements. Such comments run contrary to the philosophy and mission of the Boston Police Department to treat all members of the community as worthy of police protection and police services.

In addition to suing over the way BPD treated his tweets, Abasciano also alleges he was denied access to training classes to become a detective - a role he sought because it would be less physically taxing on his knee than continuing as a patrol officer - because he refused to get vaccinated against Covid-19. He says when he sought answers in person as to why he was left off a list of eligible candidates, he says the supervisor he talked to asked him if he had mentioned not being vaccinated and then added "I would be careful about who you email about that” or words to that effect.

Abasciano's complaint lists ten formal charges, including failure to provide a reasonable accommodation related to a disability under both federal and state law, religious discrimination, gender discrimination - for actions dating to 2018 to allegedly deny him a chance at being promoted to detective - violation of his First Amendment right to free speech, retaliation for exercising that right, defamation and intentional interference with an advantageous business relationship.

Abasciano is the second former member of the West Roxbury Republican ward committee to sue the city. Hal Shurtleff, who led a virulently pro-Trump, anti-bike-lane slate that took over the committee in the 2020 elections, sued the city when officials wouldn't let him fly a "Christian" flag over City Hall Plaza.

Shurtleff, who, like Abasciano, now lives in New Hampshire, ultimately won when the Supreme Court concluded the city didn't have a rational policy for deciding who could run a flag up one of the three flagpoles at the plaza, and he was allowed to fly his flag over the plaza for a couple of hours in August, 2022.