Today’s garbage people: Indiana attorney general Todd Rokita, and Trump Youth Gruppenleiter Charlie Mandizara

Even in these degenerate times, when we’ve been coarsened to so many outrages, this story should shock people into action:

Two days after Charlie Kirk was killed, Suzanne Swierc, an employee at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., woke up to a cascade of missed calls, texts and voice mail messages from numbers she did not know.

“They were calling me all kinds of names, threatening my job,” Ms. Swierc said. “It was every awful curse word under the sun.”

“I immediately texted my supervisor, and I said, ‘I think I have a situation.’”

Ms. Swierc (pronounced swirtz) discovered that the barrage stemmed from something she had posted on Facebook the day before: “If you think Charlie Kirk was a wonderful person, we can’t be friends.” Her Facebook settings were private, but one of her followers must have taken a screen shot and sent it on without her knowledge.

Within hours, Libs of TikTok, a social media account known for transphobic content and smear campaigns against schools, hospitals and libraries, posted it publicly on its popular X account. Ms. Swierc got her first message 19 minutes later. Elon Musk posted about it. So did Rudy Giuliani. Indiana’s Attorney General, Todd Rokita, also mentioned it on X, calling her comments “vile,” and saying that they “should make people question someone’s ability to be in a leadership position.” . . .

Five days later, Ms. Swierc was fired from her job as the director of health and advocacy at Ball State, one of more than 145 people around the country who’ve lost their jobs for posting negatively about Mr. Kirk. Mr. Rokita, the attorney general, noted the firing approvingly.

“Ball State’s legal analysis was also 100% correct here,” he said on X on Sept. 17, the day she was fired. He then listed other institutions of higher and lower education in the state and said they “should take notice,” and added, “We are waiting.”

This is my legal analysis: Todd Rokita is an egregious piece of shit who is a disgrace to the legal profession.

Here’s a link for filing a complaint against a member of the Indiana bar, which I will be doing directly. I encourage everyone reading this to do the same. Here’s Rokita’s attorney registration:

Meanwhile, let’s survey the profiles in academic courage at Ms. Swierc’s former university:

The firing compelled Sarah Vitale to get involved. An associate professor of philosophy at Ball State, Ms. Vitale is part of a local progressive political group called Muncie Resists, and is the secretary of the American Association of University Professors at Ball State, an advocacy group for university employees.

University faculty in Indiana were already on edge after last year’s law exposed them to anonymous complaints. They have started to accompany one another to meetings with human resources, in a sort of buddy system. Ms. Vitale went with Ms. Swierc to hers. But while she knew people were nervous, she was unprepared for what came next. When she and her colleagues began to circulate a petition opposing the firing, many were too afraid to put their names on it. Some gave only their first names. Others said they’d agree only if others in their department did.

“People are afraid,” Ms. Vitale said in an interview last week. “They’re afraid for their jobs.” . . .

Six-year-old Ruby Bridges is protected by U.S. deputy marshals as she ends her school day at the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans in November 1960.Photograph by ASSOCIATED PRESS

A colleague in a different state who serves with Ms. Vitale in the leadership of the Radical Philosophy Association took their name off its website, as did several people in the A.A.U.P. at Ball State because they were worried about doxxing by outside groups. Ms. Vitale said she was fine with keeping her name public, but in the end all of their names came down.

As of Sunday, the petition against her firing had 83 signatures, out of about 3,000 full-time faculty and staff.

Let’s check in on Tomorrow’s Leaders:

“I do not see this as Republicans going after the left,” said Charlie Mandziara, the president of the College Republicans at Ball State. He said the calls for the firings were an effort to tamp down political violence, which inflammatory social media posts, he said, only encourage.

Mr. Mandziara, a 19-year-old sophomore, said that most of his friends who are not conservative had been respectful about Mr. Kirk’s death, including a fraternity brother who is the head of the College Democrats. But he did see people on campus laughing about Mr. Kirk after the killing, and saw comments on social media that implied he deserved it.

“That encouragement, if left rhetorically unopposed, can devolve into further violence,” he said, adding, of Ms. Swierc, “the university made the correct decision in letting her go.”

Hey 19, that’s Charlie Mandziara all you future law school and business school admissions committees. CHARLIE MANDZIARA, who thinks it’s a good thing to fire a public employee. for posting a completely innocuous private message on a social media account.

Future potential employers of all kinds might want to flag Charlie Mandziara’s LinkedIn page.

Never forgive them.