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Maryland Official Fired After Posting ‘Divisive’ Memes Supporting Kenosha Shooter

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A Maryland state official was fired Saturday after he posted memes about the shooter who killed two and injured one in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Aug. 25.

Former Maryland Office of Community Initiatives Deputy Director Arthur “Mac” Love IV was terminated over Facebook posts about Kyle Rittenhouse, The Baltimore Sun reported. Rittenhouse, 17, was charged with first-degree reckless homicide on Thursday.

Love posted one meme that said, “Don’t be a thug if you can’t take a slug!” according to Eric Luedtke, the majority leader of the Maryland House of Delegates.

This is one of the FB posts by Governor Hogan’s Deputy Director of Community Initiatives.

Who oversees – I’m not kidding – the Commission on African American History and Culture.

Fire him, @GovLarryHogan, and issue the Exec Order on use of force you should’ve issued months ago. pic.twitter.com/uNh62cAbtD

— Delegate Eric Luedtke (@EricLuedtke) August 29, 2020

Love also posted a meme that said, “I’m grateful that conservatives are rallying behind this kid. He genuinely seems like a good person,” according to The Sun. Another meme showed an image of protesters holding signs saying they could police their own communities and said Rittenhouse “policed his community.”

“These divisive images and statements are inconsistent with the mission and core values of the Office of Community Initiatives,” Steve McAdams, executive director of the Office of Community Initiatives, said in a Saturday statement, The Sun reported. “Earlier today, I relieved this employee of his duties.”

Shareese Churchill, a spokesperson for Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, said, “These posts are obviously totally inappropriate. We fully support the immediate actions taken by Director McAdams to address this matter,” according to The Sun.

The Office of Community Initiatives oversees the Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture, according to its website.

Rittenhouse appeared to be involved in two separate shooting incidents on Aug. 25, according to a New York Times video analysis. Before both shootings, Rittenhouse can be seen running from individuals, including one who was armed with a handgun, before firing upon them with his rifle.

At 23:19, Rittenhouse is seen in this YouTube livestream. He’s being chased into a parking lot. While he is being pursued, an unknown gunman fires the first shot into the air. pic.twitter.com/BSD8rd6ARN

— Christiaan Triebert (@trbrtc) August 27, 2020

Rittenhouse told The Daily Caller that he was in Kenosha to protect property and to “help people.”

“Kyle did nothing wrong. He exercised his God-given, Constitutional, common law and statutory right to self defense,” Pierce Bainbridge, the law firm representing Rittenhouse, said in a Friday press release.

Protests and riots occurred in Kenosha following the Aug. 23 shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man who police shot in the back seven times. Blake is paralyzed from his waist down, his father said following the shooting.