Hospital Worker Loses Job Over Election Day Outfit

It had a noose and the words 'Mississippi Justice'
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 9, 2018 2:35 AM CST
Hospital Worker Loses Job Over Election Day Outfit
A Confederate battle flag flutters in the breeze in Danville, Va.   (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

It's not clear what Mississippi man Clayton Hickey was hoping to achieve by wearing a pro-lynching T-shirt on Election Day—but if it was getting fired, then job done. Photos shared online showed Hickey at a polling place in Olive Branch, Mississippi, wearing a T-shirt that featured a Confederate flag, a noose, and the words "Mississippi Justice." Hickey's employer, Regional One Health in Memphis, decided to fire the EMT after receiving a deluge of complaints about him when the photo went viral and he was identified as a hospital employee, the New York Post reports.

Hickey is a former Memphis police officer who was fired in 2010 after he was found with a 17-year-old girl and an open container of alcohol and charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, BuzzFeed reports. WMC Action News 5 spoke to patients and visitors at Regional One who said the shirt made them fear that Hickey would give patients differing treatment—or even harm them. The hospital said Hickey was terminated because its mission includes "fostering a safe and protected work and care environment for all." (In Georgia, voters received racist robocalls from somebody claiming to be Oprah Winfrey.)

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