{"id":1038407,"date":"2021-11-20T23:58:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T04:58:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1038407"},"modified":"2021-11-20T23:58:31","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T04:58:31","slug":"virginia-police-officer-fired-after-donating-to-rittenhouses-defense-fund-wants-his-job-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/virginia-police-officer-fired-after-donating-to-rittenhouses-defense-fund-wants-his-job-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Police Officer Fired After Donating to Rittenhouse\u2019s Defense Fund Wants His Job Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fvirginia-police-officer-fired-after-donating-to-rittenhouses-defense-fund-wants-his-job-back%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1038407&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Kyle-Rittenhouse-Mug-Shot-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Lieutenant William Kelly wants his job back after the Norfolk Police Department fired him following a $25 anonymous donation made to Kyle Rittenhouse\u2019s legal defense fund in April 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Rittenhouse\u2019s two-week trial for the shooting of three men during the 2020 Kenosha riots concluded on Friday with a not guilty jury verdict.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>Kelly, a 42-year-old, 19-year police veteran and father of three, was ten months away from his pension vesting when the Norfolk Police Department fired him. Kelly told the&nbsp;<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10222207\/Virginia-cop-fired-anonymously-donating-25-Kyle-Rittenhouse-fund-demands-job-back.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DailyMail:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"9\">\n<p>Everything I\u2019m saying is just my personal opinion. I\u2019ve been a homicide detective, a violent crimes investigator for years. I have a background. I watched the video of the shooting. I\u2019d seen the video of the journalists of Mr. Rittenhouse before the shooting and the protesters before the shooting and I thought it painted a pretty clear picture that Mr. Rittenhouse had a very strong claim for self-defense.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Kelly noticed that GoFundMe canceled the fundraiser for Rittenhouse\u2019s defense but saw a new page set up for his legal defense on the Give Send Go platform.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly sent his donation anonymously with a note that read, \u201cGod Bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You\u2019ve done nothing wrong. Every rank-and-file police officer supports you.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t want my city or police department to be associated with it, so I chose to donate anonymously,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, hackers obtained Kelly\u2019s name and email address, then gave it to&nbsp;<em>The Guardian<\/em>, who ran a&nbsp;<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2021\/apr\/16\/us-police-officers-public-officials-crowdfunding-website-data-breach\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">story<\/a>&nbsp;on police officers and public officials who donated to Rittenhouse\u2019s fund.<\/p>\n<p>The backlash from this article led the Norfolk Police Department to fire him, citing an&nbsp;<a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10222207\/Virginia-cop-fired-anonymously-donating-25-Kyle-Rittenhouse-fund-demands-job-back.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">erosion<\/a>&nbsp;of the public\u2019s trust in the police.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt wasn\u2019t people local, it was people from all around the country who read an article and sent a nasty tweet. In the absence of that outcry, there would not have been any kind of disciplinary action against me, I\u2019m confident,\u201d said Kelly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is America. You can agree with your neighbors and other people in your community and you can disagree with them. Just because someone has a different opinion than you, it doesn\u2019t mean you should destroy their lives, take their job away,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Furthermore, Kelly was punished for his donation despite Norfolk police chief Larry Boone keeping his job after attending a Black Lives Matter protest fully uniformed and on duty last May.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly pointed out Norfolk Police Department\u2019s inconsistency in handling these two situations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYet I cannot, off-duty, on my own time make a donation and some comments that are well within the realm of public, acceptable discourse?\u201d he questioned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I had a different opinion and I donated to a fund for the victims and made comments about how Mr. Rittenhouse was a murderer, nobody would have cared or tried to get me fired,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n<p>Although Rittenhouse was found not guilty by a jury of 12 of his peers, Kelly does not think public opinion will change:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"7\">\n<p>I don\u2019t think the discourse will change. People are dug in on their heels. They\u2019ll point to some other boogie-man as an excuse as to why he was acquitted. They won\u2019t be forced to look at the facts of the case. I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll change their mind.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Kelly would like to resolve the issue privately before his scheduled hearing date at the end of January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lieutenant William Kelly wants his job back after the Norfolk Police Department fired him following a $25 anonymous donation made to Kyle Rittenhouse\u2019s legal defense fund in April 2021. Rittenhouse\u2019s &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1038407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}