It's a little late, and I'm not able to put time into looking into it tonight, but I imagine that towards the end of slavery, Northern business owners who claimed that paying free men to work would put their businesses under and that those same owners were looked down upon in their community. We may be looking at the same phenomenon occuring.
And, yes, the spectrum is huge. This covers everything from speeding tickets to domestic violence, and beyond.
Another part of my question, again without any position put forth on my part, is this: Was the method used acceptable, publically speaking out against them, and would that same method be acceptable if it was used on a rank-and-file or low-to-middle manager?
Logically, if an employee was fired for either of these reasons, would it be acceptable?
I'm neither defending nor attacking the position. If, say, a coworker was accused of beating his girlfriend then returned to work, would you a) doubt his character, but accept his skill as required, b) do nithing, or c) demand he be fired?
If you found out at lunch that your coworker put $1000 into a political campaign to ban gay marriage, would you ask your office mates to start a twitter campaign to request his resignation?
And, yes, the spectrum is huge. This covers everything from speeding tickets to domestic violence, and beyond.