The Norfolk, Virginia, Police Department didn’t waste any time when it learned that a top-ranking cop not only entertained a heresy but also had the temerity to express it.
The city agency suspended and then fired Lieutenant William Kelly, an 18-year veteran of the department and No. 2 in its Internal Affairs Department, upon learning that Kelly supported Kyle Rittenhouse.
Rittenhouse is falsely accused of “murder” for defending himself against three violent, left-wing criminals during the Antifa-Black Lives Matter rioting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year. Kelly championed Rittenhouse online, a leftist doxxing outfit reported that to the department, and that was the end of Kelly’s career in Norfolk.
Frighteningly, department Chief Larry Boone implied that Kelly lacked “honor” and “integrity” because he backed Rittenhouse.
Bad news for the city: It might have broken state law.
Violated Policies
“I have reviewed the results of the internal investigation involving Lt. William Kelly. Chief Larry Boone and I have concluded Lt. Kelly’s actions are in violation of City and departmental policies,” City Manager Chip Filer said on Tuesday.
The city put Kelly on administrative duty on April 16 after “reports were made that he donated and expressed support for the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, who is charged with multiple felonies, including homicide,” the city’s release said.
Of course, the statement doesn’t detail why Rittenhouse is charged, or why he was forced to defend himself on August 25 amid the rioting chaos in Kenosha.
Screen Shot Google DocsThose facts, apparently, were unimportant:
I want the residents of Norfolk to know that their police department will represent and uphold our organizational values of Service, Honor, Integrity, Equality, Leadership, and Diversity. A police department cannot do its job when the public loses trust with those whose duty is to serve and protect them. We do not want perceptions of any individual officer to undermine the relations between the Norfolk Police Department and the community. I ask the community to continue to support the officers of the Norfolk Police Department as in the past knowing that right now, at this moment, they are continuing to serve and protect them.
The Virginian-Pilot, the city’s leftist newspaper, hastened to observe that accused “vigilante Rittenhouse” is white, and explained how the city found out about Kelly’s support for Rittenhouse:
An anonymous donor in September gave $25 to the legal defense of Kyle Rittenhouse, but the donation came from Kelly’s official email address, according to data from the Christian crowdfunding website GiveSendGo that was hacked. The transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets then shared the information with journalism organizations, including The Virginian-Pilot.
… [T]he donation from Kelly’s email address carried the comment: “God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong.”
It continued: “Every rank and file police officer supports you. Don’t be discouraged by actions of the political class of law enforcement leadership.”
The head of the police union, Clay Messick, has never seen an administrative probe open and close “so hastily,” the newspaper reported:
“We were hoping for a full, transparent investigation,” he said, noting Kelly is not a member of the union. “But after 72 hours, I do not believe that is what we got.
“It is hard to call this fair.”
Unsurprisingly, the police chief and city manager haven’t said what “policy” Kelly “violated,” according to the newspaper, although a good guess is that he disputes the leftist narrative about Rittenhouse.
As Norfolk Mayor Kenny Alexander commented, Kelly’s sentiments are “alarming and by all means not consistent with the values of our city.”
What “values” those might be, Alexander also left unsaid. But one needn’t be a big-city, cold-case detective to figure them out.
Anyway, Virginia law forbids localities from firing public employees for expressing political opinions on their own time. The obvious question: If Kelly had donated to and backed Black Lives Matter, would the city have fired him?
Rittenhouse “Victims”
Though the city release on Kelly is technically correct that Rittenhouse “is charged with multiple felonies, including homicide,” it lied by omission by not explaining Rittenhouse’s actions.
Rittenhouse defended himself against three hardened criminals:
- The first “victim” was Joseph Rosenbaum, a homosexual child rapist who attacked and cornered Rittenhouse.
- The second, Anthony Huber, was a convicted strangler and domestic abuser who attacked Rittenhouse with a skateboard.
- The third, Gaige Grosskreutz, moved against Rittenhouse with a pistol and is also a violent and dangerous career criminal. After the riot, a friend reported that Grosskreutz wished he had killed Rittenhouse.
Video evidence clearly shows that Rittenhouse defended himself against the three, as does the criminal complaint that details his putative “crimes.”
The Virginian-Pilot also omitted those facts.
