Briskman, who was riding alongside the U.S. commander-in-chief’s caravan of black SUVs on October 28 in Sterling when she was snapped by a White House photographer giving the one-finger salute, was fired from her job as a marketing specialist on October 31 by Akima LLC (a government contractor) — for violating their social media obscenity policy by using a now-viral photo as her profile picture on Facebook and Twitter.
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Briskman, who emphasized to the executives that she wasn’t on the job when the incident happened and that her social media pages don’t mention her employer, told The Huffington Post:
“They said, ‘We’re separating from you’. Basically, you cannot have ‘lewd’ or ‘obscene’ things in your social media. So they were calling flipping him off ‘obscene’. A male colleague kept his job after recently posting lewd comments on his Facebook page that featured Akima LLC as his cover photo.
“This colleague was reprimanded for calling someone “a fucking Libtard asshole” on Facebook, but was allowed to delete the post and keep his job. How is that any less ‘obscene’ than me flipping off the president? How is that fair?”
After the story of Briskman’s unjustified termination caused a worldwide uproar, a GoFundMe page was set up on November 6 to help her raise money while she looked for a new job. In less than two weeks, the “Thank You Juli Briskman” GoFundMe page has raised more than $120,000 of an initial $100,000 goal.
While the donations continue to pour in, Briskman has received nearly a half million job offers from business owners across the country.
“She’s my ‘she-ro’. She can take over our spin classes and teach everyone that great presidential salute!” said Lucy Clementori, who owns a chain of fitness centers throughout the Southwest.
“It took guts to do what she did, giving the finger to The Great White Dope. That kind of chutzpah makes a great salesperson. She’s hired,” exclaimed Norm LaForge, who owns a multi-million dollar company erecting cell towers in the Midwest.
“I don’t have any openings, but I’ll find a place for her anyway. I guess President Trump was right after all, he really is creating new jobs,” declared Darlene Ranalin, founder of a public relations firm in Boston.
Despite losing her job, Briskman has no regrets for exercising her first amendment rights; in fact, she says she would do it all over again if she had the choice.