Maryland Official Fired: A Joking Social Media Post About Kenosha Shooting

On Saturday, Larry Hogan’s administration was fired, ANNAPOLIS, Md.

Larry Hogan, a deputy director in Maryland Gov., his administration was fired after social media posts on fatal shootings related to the protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The social media made a joke of the deadly shooting, and that the reason it went under criticism.

On Saturday, Hogan’s office confirmed the firing of Arthur “Mac.” He works at the Community Initiatives Governor’s Office as a deputy director.

A spokeswoman for Hogan, Shareese Churchill, said, “These posts are inappropriate.”

Later, Democrats called for Love’s dismissal. The reason behind this was the social media posts became widely known, and it went viral as well.

The posts were actually in support of Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old who was fatally shot the other two people. Later, he also wounded another after he traveled to Kenosha. He traveled there with plans to protect businesses from the protestors ostensibly, and it was in response to the Jacob Blake shooting by police. Kyle Rittenhouse was charged for shooting two with first-degree intentional homicide.

Maryland Matters were the first to report the firing.

But there was no response from Love for Facebook message seeking comment. Apart from that, the phone numbers listed there were not functioning.

On Saturday, there was news that a Maryland state official was fired. The reason was he shared social media posts, and that was in support of the Kenosha shooting. The suspect here was Kyle Rittenhouse. Arthur “Mac” Love IV.served as deputy director for the Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives, which is entirely responsible for outreach to faith communities and diverse ethnic groups.

There was tremendous attention toward Love’s Facebook post. Last week several were ultimately drew towards this post. In one of the shared images, Rittenhouse was cleaning graffiti, and it came with a caption as well. The original post had written the caption, and that quoted: “I’m grateful that members of conservatives are behind this kid. He seems a good individual.”

Based on the reports by Baltimore Sun, Love made this Facebook post. He also shared many other posts in the same group with the name Inside Maryland Politics.

17-year-old Rittenhousewas charged later for killing two protestors. Rittenhouse is also responsible for wounding one more protestor when he opened fire. The incident occurred on Tuesday night, and he used an AR-15-style rifle in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse was charged as an adult, and the charge was with one count of attempted homicide and two counts of first-degree homicide. In the meantime, he also faced accusations of recklessly endangering two other victim’s safety and processing a weapon under the age of 18.

Governor Larry Hogan’s office on Saturday confirmed that Love was fired, and they confirmed it to the Associated Press as well. Shareese Churchill, a spokeswoman for Hogan, replied, “These posts are inappropriate.” He stated this while stating the AP and many other news outlets.

Eric Luedtke, Maryland lawmaker Eric Luedtke was one of those who were called for Love’s firing. Luedtke tweeted that “This is a FB post by the office of Community Initiatives Governor Hogan’s Deputy Director. Fire him, @GovLarryHogan, and issue the Exec Order on use of force you should’ve issued months ago.”

Apart from that, Luedtke also shared another post by Love. The post contained a meme of a smiling White police officer. The post also had words, “Don’t be a thug if you can’t take a slug.”

Majority leader for Maryland’s House of Delegates, Luedtke, also tweeted that as he should be. The tweet was soon after Love’s firing since he was one among requested for Love’s firing.

There was one more statement by Steve McAdams. He is the executive director for the Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives, and he released a statement to various news outlets. He quoted, “These divisive images and statements are inconsistent with the Office of Community Initiatives’ mission and core values. Earlier today, I relieved this employee of his duties.”

Meantime, CBS News has already reached out to Governor Hogan’s office and McAdamsfor comment, and they are awaiting a response from the authorities. Same time CBS News tried to reach out to Love but was unable to get Love for analysis.

The post memes lead to the firing of a Maryland official. The officer, Love, also shared other statements that were seemingly supporting the 17-year-old killer. Rittenhouseallegedly killed two protesters, and meantime, he was also responsible for wounding a third protestor in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Finally, after several called for the officer’s firing, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s office fired Arthur (Mac) Love IV, and it was confirmed. Love, the deputy director of the Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives, fired on Saturday and based on the reports Maryland Matters.

Throughout the week, the office Love was continuously drawing the attention of many online. He was grabbing everyone’s attention through his posts on Facebook. Through most of his posts, he was showing an indication of his support to 17-year-old killer Kyle Rittenhouse. Kyle Rittenhouse initially caught on video when he allegedly opened fire on protestors of Kenosha social justice. The incident was on August 25^th, and Kyle Rittenhouse used an automatic rifle. Based on reports, Kyle Rittenhouse brought the automatic gun from Illinois.

Among all the posts, the one drew the most excellent attention was a meme showing a white police officer. The picture depicted an officer giving the thumbs up, and the legend was,’Don’t be a thug if you can’t take a slug.’ There was one more post by Love with an image of Leonardo DiCaprio. The character was from The Great Gatsby, and he was raising a glass of champagne in the picture. The caption for the image was ‘When you see a skateboard wielding Antifa chickens*** get smoked by an AR toting 17-yr-old.’

One more post contained a photo of people marching and that paired with the words, ‘Defund the police! We can police our communities.’ Here the image also included Rittenhouse with a gun and captioned ‘policed his community.’