1.5M To Be Paid To Police Chief Who Displayed Nazi Insignia; Kent, Washington

[appalachiablue]

- AP News, June 11, 2022. Ed.

KENT, Wash. (AP) — A suburban Seattle city will pay more than $1.5 million to settle a dispute with a former assistant police chief who was disciplined for posting a Nazi rank insignia on his office door and joking about the Holocaust. Former Kent Assistant Police Chief Derek Kammerzell, who had been with the department for nearly 3 decades, was initially given 2 weeks of unpaid leave after the 2020 incident.

Outraged residents and members of the Jewish community prompted Mayor Dana Ralph to put Kammerzell on paid administrative leave and demand his resignation. The city’s attempt to essentially discipline Kammerzell a second time led to a dispute between his lawyers and the city that appeared headed for litigation. But interim city Chief Administrative Officer Arthur “Pat” Fitzpatrick, who is also the city attorney, said Friday the city had resolved the matter through negotiation, The Seattle Times reported.

Ralph, in calling for Kammerzell’s resignation in January, acknowledged that the decision to revisit the discipline issue would likely “come at a high cost.” The city said Friday it would pay him $1,520,000 to resign. Had the city simply fired him, officials said, he likely would have won back his job through arbitration due to federal and state labor laws.

An internal investigation concluded Kammerzell knew the meaning of the insignia he placed above the nameplate on his office door in September 2020 — that of an “obergruppenfuhrer” — a high official in Hitler’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel, or SS, which was responsible for the systematic murders of millions of Jews and others in Europe during World War II...

- More, https://apnews.com/article/seattle-religion-government-and-politics-the-holocaust-police-b7bd34b6ddfdb3c1441862935dad7ea5
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- Gorget patch.

- Obergruppenführer, "senior group leader" was one of the Third Reich's paramilitary ranks that was first created in 1932 as a rank of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and adopted by the Schutzstaffel (SS) one year later. Until April 1942, it was the highest commissioned SS rank after only Reichsführer-SS. Translated as "senior group leader," the rank of Obergruppenführer was senior to Gruppenführer. A similarly named rank of Untergruppenführer existed in the SA from 1929 to 1930 and as a title until 1933. In April 1942, the new rank of SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer was created which was above Obergruppenführer and below Reichsführer-SS...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obergruppenf%C3%BChrer

[Bluethroughu]

1. I would have taken it to court. So can cops hang a picture of a burning cross

With the KKK on their door at work? No way was this Nazi following police procedures in their employee handbook.


He would have got nothing, but infamy for his conduct.

[appalachiablue]

2. For such an SS admirer, confinement in a concentration camp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_concentration_camps

[Bluethroughu]

3. Great idea, lock him at one of the camps still here...

A friend of mine was able to go to Europe, and she made it a focal point of her trip. She was broken and devastated by just visiting, as any decent human could imagine.


These people worshiping such evil, should live in it for some time. Maybe, it could change some minds and change the world.

[appalachiablue]

4. Good for your friend, although a very painful experience.

When young I was in the Munich area but didn't realize Dachau was close by or that my dad was in the liberation forces there in April 1945. If I ever get back to Europe, I'll make it a point to visit some of the camps.