FBI fires agents seen kneeling in iconic photo during George Floyd protests five years ago
Source: CNN Politics
PUBLISHED Sep 26, 2025, 8:29 PM ET
Federal Bureau of Investigation (officers take a knee with demonstrators, as they march on Pennsylvania Ave. on Thursday, June 4, 2020, in Washington, during a protest over the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck for several minutes. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has fired as many as 20 FBI agents, including a group associated with a 2020 incident in which agents were photographed kneeling with demonstrators at the height of protests over the police killing of George Floyd, two people briefed on the matter said.
The latest round of dismissals at the bureau came at the end of a review by the FBIs inspection division and recommendations evaluated by the bureaus general counsels office, one person briefed on the matter said. As many as 20 people were terminated in the latest round of ousters, including about 15 associated with the kneeling incident, according to the sources.
The FBI declined to comment on the firings.
The kneeling incident in Washington, DC, gained notoriety inside the FBI and drew criticism particularly in conservative media and among some retired agents. It occurred after a group of agents assigned to protect federal monuments and buildings were confronted by a group of protesters. FBI agents generally arent trained to do crowd control and deploying them to face off with demonstrators raised fears of a possible deadly confrontation, current and former bureau officials said.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/09/26/politics/fbi-agents-fired-blm-george-floyd-protests
"Price of eggs", "Kitchen table issues", "Working class".


TommyT139
(1,938 posts)wolfie001
(6,218 posts)


Bernardo de La Paz
(58,798 posts)C Moon
(13,205 posts)Gimpyknee
(691 posts)James48
(4,958 posts)That they have little appeal rights. FBI agents have fewer rights and appeal options than other federal employees. They are all toast now.
pfitz59
(11,895 posts)With so many decent career folk being fired who's getting hired? Jan 6th traitors?
Prairie Gates
(6,343 posts)Sorry, but the whole "taking a knee" thing was always, always goofy. The picture is embarrassing.
Firing the people involved in this goofy performative display is vindictive and assholistic.
Everybody is wrong here.
BumRushDaShow
(160,709 posts)
There is a continued lack of awareness of and often heartless disregard for cultural ways that oppressed communities use to mentally and emotionally deal with sustained, multi-generational attacks against them by majority communities.
muriel_volestrangler
(104,824 posts)But it is constructive in the case of kneeling - it creates solidarity. It says "we understand the system needs reform". It was not "wrong".
Firing people ruins their lives.
flashman13
(1,531 posts)Answer: It's the FBI. These people are comrades in arms. Pay back is a mother Donnie. I believe you will find that to be true in the very near future.
soldierant
(8,961 posts)The number of documents, "mostly unredacted", they have sent to Congress this week is - to say the least - impressive.
muriel_volestrangler
(104,824 posts)and they called it "petty". And Trump is showing he is equally petty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadaver_Synod
Sympathy for a Black man murdered by a police officer? Solidarity with Black people who rightly see it as a symptom of structural racism? Those are firing offences now.