Juli Briskman recently made headlines when she encountered President Donald Trump’s motorcade on her weekend bike ride. As the motorcade passed her on the left, leaving from President Trump’s Virginia golf course, she threw her left arm in the air and flipped the President the bird.
After pictures of her defiant act surfaced and she began making headlines, Briskman believed it was her duty to inform her employer, a government contractor called Akima LLC. But the day after she told her Human Resources department what had happened, she was abruptly fired.
The 50-year-old mother of two also posted the photo of her flipping the President off on her Facebook page, and it was that action that the company says violated their social media policy, calling the act “Lewd” and “Obscene.”
Briskman believes this social media policy is a double standard after a male coworker was reprimanded for posting on his social media, calling someone a “f***ing Libtard a**hole” while also using the company’s logo as his cover photo. He was not fired.
“How is that any less ‘obscene’ than me flipping off the president?” she asked the Huffington Post. “How is that fair?”
Now unemployed, Briskman felt she was unjustly let go of her position for expressing her first amendment rights. And while this seems unjust, people have been paying attention and applauding her bravery to unleash her middle finger. They started a GoFundMe campaign with a goal of $100,000 to help Briskman with her finances as she looks for more work.
As of writing this article, the campaign has already surpassed $87,000, which was raised by over 3,700 people in the 8 days the GoFundMe campaign has been live. That’s over $10,000 a day!
“Juli Briskman is an inspiration to us all,” the GoFundMe page says. “This week we learned that she was fired from her employer for exercising her first amendment rights.”
What was Briskman’s response to the overwhelming support?
“Through your generous donations, heavy burdens have been lifted,” she says. “Thank you!”
Who knew that one middle finger could cause so much trouble, and raise so much money?
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