Some guy on Facebook wrote some really sick stuff.
“Let’s just get this over!” Kinch wrote in one post. “Race war, Civil, Revolution? Bring it! I’m about as fed up as a man (American, Christian, White, Heterosexual) can get!”
“It’s obviously coming to a boiling point! I say ‘F*CK IT’!” Kinch stated in another angry post. “I’m ready now! Sooner or later, I would say sooner than later! Thought I could make a difference, thought it would get better! See the morale fabric of this Country get so trampled I wanna call it! GAME ON! I think we need a cleansing! Just me? What say you?”
Kinch happens to be Bobby Kinch, Las Vegas police detective and guy with a gun and shield, courtesy of the government. His rants were so bizarre, so outrageous, that even his fellow cops couldn’t take it.
“You’ve lost your mind,” Detective Joe Giannone responded. “This may be the dumbest sh*t you’ve ever posted. That’s saying a lot.”
When Giannone says “that’s saying a lot,” that is saying a lot. But that’s not all.
Deputy Chief Gary Schofield, former head of the department’s internal affairs division, alerted the Secret Service the following month regarding his online activity, allegedly saying that “a highly-trained officer in Las Vegas with access to weapons could be a threat to the president.”
But the Secret Service didn’t roll in to deal with some flamer on Facebook, though they were apparently ready to do so.
But former Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie stepped in less than an hour before federal officials raided Kinch’s home.
“It was about to be a disaster,” one police official told the Sun. “We had 30 minutes until doors were being kicked in.”
What Gillespie means by “disaster” isn’t clear. A bad PR day for his department, or dead bodies littered about the place as Bobby Kinch shoots whatever cop-issued armaments he’s got lying around? Either way, the raid was called off. And Kinch has now been reinstated as a LV detective. Because he’s certainly got no attitude problem and can be trusted to be fair and kind.
But here is the real test of devotion to the Constitution. As batshit crazy as Bobby Kinch may be, does he not have a First Amendment right to spew insane, racist hate on Facebook? You do. I do. Why shouldn’t he?
Under other circumstances, most notably when police are speaking in their official capacity, whether because they’re on duty or in uniform in public, their personal free speech rights are curtailed by their official duties. You can’t enjoy the benefits of the authority that comes with being a cop while exercising personal rights that demean and conflict with everything being a cop is all about.
But this was Facebook. Where can a guy be more of an asshole than Facebook? So Bobby Kinch hates blacks? Non-Christians? Women? Gays? This is America, people. We have a constitutional right to hate anybody we damn well please, and a constitutional right to express our hatred, sick as it may be.
This is where fair-weather constitution lovers get put to the test. You can’t be all about free speech only when its speech you like. The protection matters most when it’s speech you hate, speech you find repulsive and disgusting. Speech you like needs no protection. That’s how free speech works.
So am I saying that Bobby Kinch should be back on the street, carrying a gun and shield?
No. Not a chance in hell. He is:
Exactly the kind of person who should not be allowed anywhere near power. Or a gun, for that matter.
But his immediate dismissal from the Las Vegas police force with extreme prejudice should not be a product of his exercise of free speech.
Investigators looking into Kinch’s case also received a photo, taken by an unidentified union official, of Kinch pointing a handgun at a collectible plate with President Barack Obama’s face on it. The plate was reportedly a gag gift from fellow officers.
That last line makes it clear, in case there was any doubt, that Kinch’s fellow cops were well aware of the fact that he was a rabid racist, a hater of more than sufficient breadth that he should never be a cop. They knew it. It was no secret.
That’s saying a lot.
The fact that Bobby Kinch was so indiscreet about his racist, sexist, views that his fellow cops, a group not particularly renown for its tolerant views, thought he was batshit crazy toward others provides ample reason for Kinch’s being fired.
So should he have been fired for his horrendous and outrageous speech on Facebook? No, of course not. He should have been fired for holding these views in a job where they are fundamentally incompatible, dangerous and unacceptable, as reflected by his fellow officers’ disdain for his racist attitudes.
All of which calls into question why Sheriff Doug Gillespie hadn’t fired him long before Kinch had the opportunity to embarrass himself and disgrace his police department with his public spewing of hatred. It’s not the speech; it’s the fact that they hired a nutjob, and kept a nutjob, like Kinch on the force at all.
And so it should come as no surprise that Kinch remains on the job. After all, if they can’t distinguish people who are psychologically unfit to be a cop in the first place, and don’t care that they’ve given a gun and authority to a racist to go out on the street and put his attitude to the test, what difference does a little free speech make?
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~~~So should he have been fired for his horrendous and outrageous speech on Facebook? No, of course not. He should have been fired for holding these views in a job where they are fundamentally incompatible, dangerous and unacceptable, as reflected by his fellow officers disdain for his racist attitudes.~~~
In a job or on the job? You are going to have to unravel that for me in a statute unraveling cage match one of these days esteemed one.
Why the long face? Speech is good it’s just like voting or letters to the editor. If there is one or two here and a dozen over there and you get more information out if them voluntarily you can start pulling on the ball of yarn statistically speaking.
If you can’t fire ‘um for one reason chances are you can dismiss them for another though. Which is perplexing if not troubling perhaps.
Another fine example of blind faith lazy guild-ed madness…and the band plays on.
Too bad Bad Boy Boxer Shorts In a Knott Bobby can’t play the g-uitar. He could bank the New Age Neo American, Christian, White, Heterosexual just can’t get it blues segment.
Will guilds ever learn? Especially guilded blue! You think that gang would run their prospects for at least a decade before they presented them with the golden rimmed shades.
“What Gillespie means by “disaster” isn’t clear. A bad PR day for his department, or dead bodies littered about the place as Bobby Kinch shoots whatever cop-issued armaments he’s got lying around? ”
I think he means that the feds were afraid to come rolling in and go all Rambo on him because, unlike a commoner, Bobby Kinch is in a specially protected class of American and he’d probably shoot back and then there would be the uncomfortable spectacle of two different police agencies in conflict and we can’t show disunity in front of the peasants. Because solidarity among our heros in the “keeping us safe” racket is more important than anything else.
Or something like that.
You mean like my alt option?
I don’t know what alt option means.
Sadly, that happens a lot more than it should. (It was a joke that went whoosh.)
The local prosecutors must be thrilled at the prospect of getting his cases….
As Turk noted in a twit, can you imagine crossing him? How much fun would that be?
If a politician believes he should be an absolute dictator that makes Pol Pot and Idi Amin look like petty opportunists, but scrupulously acts only within the scope of his authority and executes his job with good with good faith, I’d not remove him from office.
Similarly, as long as this cop’s behavior on the job is professional and he acts within the scope of his authority, I don’t think he should be fired.
Mind you, I think he should be monitored for malfeasance, but he should not be fired. Misconduct, dereliction, and failure to perform are reasons to fire someone. Holding views inconsistent with one’s duties (while still holding to one’s duties) is not.
A cop exercises a remarkable amount of discretion in the course of his job. From the outside, it can be impossible to determine if that discretion is exercised properly or unconstitutionally (think equal protection clause), and it’s easy to come up with a fairly neutral rationale for someone who engages in misconduct.
Even if Kinch doesn’t intentional discriminate in the performance of his duty, flagrant racism will find a way to influence his perceptions. When someone is so far off the beaten path as this, executing his job with “good faith” isn’t close enough. Nobody that psychologically damage should have authority over other people.