Police officer fired for donating to Rittenhouse defense roars back after not-guilty verdict, wants job back

The Virginia police officer who abruptly lost his job after it was revealed he donated to Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense fund wants his job back after a jury concluded that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense and declared him not guilty of murder.

What is the background?
Norfolk Police Lt. William Kelly was fired in April after the Guardian revealed the names of police officers and other public officials who donated to Rittenhouse’s legal defense fund.

Kelly reportedly donated $25, and used his department-issued email address while making the donation. Kelly also left a message on the crowdsourcing website that read, “God bless. Thank you for your courage. Keep your head up. You’ve done nothing wrong. Every rank and file police officer supports you. Don’t be discouraged by actions of the political class of law enforcement leadership.”…

“I was interested in giving him the chance to defend himself in front of a jury. I know that lawyers are expensive, and it’s hard sometimes to get the message out there. I wanted to make sure that he had the means necessary to make his claim in court,” Kelly told the Daily Mail. “It mattered. The comments I made, my belief that he has a strong claim for self-defense was a personal opinion. I didn’t want my city or police department to be associated with it, so I chose to donate anonymously.”

Kelly also said his opinion about the Rittenhouse case had “no impact on my ability to do my job as a police officer,” and should not have resulted in his termination.

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