Lt. William Kelly fired from police for donation to Kyle Rittenhouse fund

Yes, f**k Kyle and everyone who loves him.

Source: JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Getty

If you don’t remember Kyle Rittenhouse‘s name then you are living a pretty good life. However, those who do remember Kyle’s name are likely in great pain and anguish every time he is mentioned. Rittenhouse was the 17-year-old white boy who shot three people and killed two during the Kenosha, Wisconsin protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Kyle became a celebrity amongst those who generally hate Black folks. Republicans, conservatives, right-wingers, white supremacists, ADORE him for “owning the libs” and “defending himself” against those with who he was in a fistfight. Let them tell it, you have every right to murder someone if you find yourself in a physical altercation. This, of course, is not true but there are some gun owners who think you can shoot people for literally any reason you choose.

One of the people who believe this is former Norfolk Police Department officer Lt. William Kelly. We say “former” because Kelly has recently been fired according to an NBCNews report. What was he fired for, you ask? Oh, just donating money to Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal defense fund. No big deal…

Kelly worked in Internal Affairs investigating shady cops and it turns out that HE was a shady cop! He made an anonymous donation to Kyle’s online crowdsourcing fund with the message: “God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Chief Larry Boone and I have concluded Lt. Kelly’s actions are in violation of City and departmental policies,” Chip Filer, the city manager of Norfolk, said in a statement. “His egregious comments erode the trust between the Norfolk Police Department and those they are sworn to serve. The City of Norfolk has a standard of behavior for all employees, and we will hold staff accountable.”

Two people are dead and one was seriously wounded over a hand-to-hand fight but Kyle did nothing wrong? These are the people who we pay to “serve and protect” our streets. Tuh.

*Editor’s Note: Our original story claimed that Kyle Rittenhouse took his AR-15-style gun across state lines in addition to claiming Rittenhouse’s mom drove him to the protest. Prosecutors in Lake County IL said back in fall 2020 that there was no evidence that Rittenhouse took his gun from IL to WI. His mother also said in November 2020 that she was unaware that her son was at the protests as reported by the Chicago Tribune.