Paramedic sues Polk City Over First Amendment rights
A Polk City paramedic fired for her online comments about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk is now suing the city for allegedly violating her First Amendment rights.
Alissa Furry’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, names as defendants Polk City; the city manager, Chelsea Huisman, and the city’s police chief, Jeremy Siepker.
According to the lawsuit, furry’s performance reviews indicated she met or exceeded all expectations throughout her employment with the city as a state-licensed paramedic. In 2023, she received her first Lifesaving Award recognizing her work on a cardiac-arrest call, and in 2024, she was recognized with the Rookie of the Year Award and two additional Lifesaving Awards. In 2025, she was voted Medic of the Year by her peers and received a fourth Lifesaving Award.
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The lawsuit alleges Furry never faced discipline from the city and that the city never raised any concerns about her job performance.
According to the lawsuit, Furry was off duty on Sept. 10, 2025, when she posted a message to her private Facebook account about that day’s shooting of Kirk.
The lawsuit alleges that in her post,Furry wrote: “Why I really don’t care that this guy died from gun violence. He was a bigoted prick, and according to his own words he died in an acceptable way. I have as much sympathy and empathy for him as that insurance CEO that was killed. I do care that two high school students were critically injured today due to gun violence at their school. Unfortunately, I’m seeing way more about this a-hole on my Facebook than I am the kids that were hurt.”
Furry’s post was in reference to Kirk’s public comments in April 2023 in which he said,”I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.”
The lawsuit claims that a former coworker of Furry’s immediately contacted her and advised her to be cautious about what she posted on social media.Within four minutes of posting the comment, Furry deleted it, the lawsui