14 DAY TRIAL // 22-year-old store attendant Denise Helms, from California, was fired over a racist Facebook post. Employer Cold Stone Creamery, in Turlock, California, removed Helms from her position after being flooded by angry tweets about her disturbing political and social views, Sacramento Fox 40 reports.
Helms referred to the re-elected president using the dreaded N-word, and expressed how she wished he would just be assassinated already.
“Another 4 years of this (N-word). [...] Maybe he will get assassinated this term,” Helms wrote on her Facebook wall after the presidential elections.
Store owners wanted to make a statement that they did not condone racial slurs and hate messages from their employees.
“This employee is no longer w/the (sic) company & her disgraceful and completely unacceptable comments do not reflect our views,” one of their Twitter posts reads.
“We found her comments to be very disgusting. [...] We made the decision [to fire her] because of her comments, but also the community feedback. We are very into working with the community and doing community service. So when your community does not like you because of an employee, that's bad. We have a business to run,” Turlock Cold Stone Creamery store director Chris Kegle explained.
According to HuffPost, Helms defends her freedom of speech on Facebook, claiming her message is one person's opinion and should be respected as such.
“So apparently my post last night about Obama got onto Twitter and Fox 40 came and interviewed me cause apparently a lot of people in Sacramento think I'm crazy and racist. WOW is all I got to say!! I'm not racist and I'm not crazy. just simply stating my opinion.!!!,” she wrote on Facebook, before canceling her account.
Now the Secret Service is looking into the matter, as her actions could be perceived as a threat to Obama, and she could face criminal charges. Threats "to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm " on the president are punishable by law under U.S. Code Section 871.