commentary by Patrick H. Moore
GILBERTON, Pa. — Town officials in Gilberton, Pennsylvania announced Thursday that they have voted to fire embattled police chief Mark Kessler. The potty-mouthed Kessler, the borough’s only full-time police officer, was suspended around the beginning of August after posting online videos of himself shooting automatic weapons on a mountainside while delivering profanity-laced tirades targeting liberals (“libtards” in Kessler’s vocabulary), who Kessler insists are intent on undermining the Second Amendment rights of Americans. Kessler is active in gun rights circles and is organizing an armed, non-government group that critics call a private militia.
Kessler, who insists that he was simply exercising both his First and Second Amendment rights in the videos, stated that the town council’s decision was “no surprise.”
“We knew it was coming.”
According to Kessler’s attorney, Joseph Nahas, the town officials, at a closed-door disciplinary hearing earlier in the day, had discussed allegations that Kessler had improperly used a state-administered program to buy discounted tires for his personal vehicle, had failed to submit required crime data, and had made derogatory comments about borough officials.
Nahas claims that the charges were trumped up to conceal the town’s intent to fire Kessler over the videos, which is probably not far from the truth. The videos are both sophomoric and scary (unless, of course, you are one of Kessler’s many outspoken supporters) and give the distinct impression that the soon-to-be former police chief could snap at any moment. Nahas stated that although the officials have already voted to fire Kessler, the outgoing police chief — under due process rules — has the right to request a public hearing at which both sides can call witnesses. The council would then have to vote a second time to fire Kessler.
For his part, Kessler told reporters outside the disciplinary hearing that he had been an excellent police chief and had nothing to apologize for. He later commented that he’d broken no laws:
“None. I’d be in handcuffs.”
“My message was to wake up the people who are independents to say, `We’ve had enough and something needs to change, because we’re in bad shape all around. Not only here in this little town but across the nation. It’s a mess.’”
Gilberton, a community of about 800 people in Schuylkill County in eastern Pennsylvania’s anthracite coal country, is a depressed area and Kessler’s salary of around $35,000 is miniscule compared to what rank-and-file police officers earn in many parts of the country. A former coal miner, during his unpaid suspension, Kessler solicited donations to help keep his family afloat financially.
In a moment of perhaps surprising candor, he admitted that his unpaid suspension was “really stressful.” He also stated that he believed he was doing the right thing:
“But I feel in my heart I’m doing the right thing. Yeah, I made some videos with some choice language, but that’s my right. That’s my freedom.”
Kessler’s pro-gun videos have garnered hundreds of thousands of views online. He acknowledges they are inflammatory but says they’re designed to draw attention to the erosion of Second Amendment and other constitutional rights. What is unclear to me is how our Second Amendment rights being eroded? In many, if not most parts of the country, Second Amendment rights have been steadily increasing. An example of this is the fact that citizens in at least six states now have the right to carry concealed weapons into their favorite bars and taverns.
Council members declined to comment after Thursday night’s vote. Earlier, Mayor Mary Lou Hannon had said she found the police chief’s language offensive.
Kessler has a history of posting online radio shows about gun rights. He has spoken at gun rights rallies and has created a website on which he seeks recruits for the Constitution Security Force, whose stated mission is to defend the constitution and the country from tyranny.
Gun rights activists had descended on Gilberton to show support for Kessler, some carrying flags and displaying weapons. For example, Constitution Security Force member Bob Gardner, who sported a semi-automatic AK-47, had traveled from Philadelphia to speak up on Kessler’s behalf:
“Mark has gotten railroaded,” said Gardner. “He was exercising his First Amendment rights by backing it up with his Second Amendment rights.”
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Ironically, back in January, Kessler had drafted a resolution that the borough adopted that calls for nullifying any federal, state or local regulations that infringe on Second Amendment rights. Thus, one can only conclude that the same individuals who have voted to fire Kessler apparently agree with him when it comes to Second Amendment rights. I would suggest that the underlying reason for giving Kessler the “bum’s rush” is that his abrasive, foul-mouthed style is simply not appropriate for a public official. Plus, in one of his recent videos, Kessler targets two hated “libtards, represented as hideous clown faces, who are clearly meant to symbolize the Vice-President of the Gilberton Borough Council, Eric Boxer, and the President of the Borough Council, Daniel Malloy. At the end of the video, which is basically an execution film, Kessler symbolically blows their heads off. It’s a bit like burning an opponent in effigy, only in this case, the soon-to-be former police chief, is blowing their heads off with a sub-machine gun.
Click here to go to view Chief Kessler’s most incendiary video:
Click here to view our previous Mark Kessler posts: