I Hate Washington State Nazis

It turns out that in Kent, Washington, it wasn't a big deal that their assistant police chief is a Nazi. 

At least they did until it became public knowledge:

Kent Mayor Dana Ralph says her administration badly underestimated the public outrage that would spring from the decision not to fire an assistant police chief who posted Nazi insignia on his office door, embraced the rank of an officer in Adolf Hitler’s murderous Schutzstaffel, or SS, and joked about the Holocaust.

The admission came as Ralph and police Chief Rafael Padilla issued a somber public mea culpa, apology and lengthy video explanation Friday on YouTube as to the reasoning behind the city’s decision to discipline Assistant Chief Derek Kammerzell by giving him two weeks off, which he could take as vacation, and ordering him to undergo cultural sensitivity training.

Ralph and the chief were forced to revisit that decision — made in July — and called last week for Kammerzell’s resignation, in what will likely be a costly violation of the city’s contract with the police union by imposing additional discipline in a case that was resolved last summer. That decision followed an international avalanche of contempt and anger focused on the suburban South King County municipality.

………

Ralph said in the video that city officials wanted to fire Kammerzell, but that they risked having him reinstated through arbitration. After a 10-month investigation, city officials concluded that Kammerzell would be given two weeks off without pay, but would be allowed to take paid vacation during that time.

2 weeks vacation.  That's one hellacious punishment, isn't it.

………

Kammerzell, a 27-year Kent police veteran, was targeted for investigation after a detective complained that the assistant chief had posted the rank insignia of a Nazi “obergruppenfuhrer“ over the name plate on his office door and referred to himself by that rank — one of the highest in the Third Reich, held by officials who oversaw the slave-labor and death camps.

The investigation also showed that Kammerzell at one point shaved his facial hair into a Hitler mustache and had been photographed in lederhosen apparently giving a stiff-armed Nazi salute during the city’s 2019 Oktoberfest celebration. In the past he had joked that his grandfather died in the Holocaust — by falling drunk out of a Nazi guard tower.

………

The city did not place Kammerzell on paid administrative leave until March 8, after the No Secret Police watchdog group alerted members of the City Council and other officials to the findings, according to emails provided to The Seattle Times by the group and documents obtained from the city through a public disclosure request.

I believe that the operative phrase here is, "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids." 

I get that it's tough to fire a cop, and I get that it's a tough job, but if literally being an open Nazi does not disqualify one from being given the state monopoly on violence, something is very wrong.