Tacoma police is placing an officer on administrative leave, forcing him to surrender his badge and gun, after he referred to city leaders as “spineless and tyrannical” and called for police to disobey orders in a video he filmed while on duty in his patrol car.
“This message is for the police in DC and other cities that have spineless and tyrannical leaders such as mine,” Patrol Officer Robert Hollingsworth says in the video. Hollingsworth goes on to say the “freedom convoy” is coming and urges officers not to violate people’s rights due to the orders of “some liberal tyrant.”
Hollingsworth ends his video, which was posted as he finished his last shift as an officer, by saying “Let’s go Brandon,” a slogan used as an epithet against President Joe Biden.
Hollingsworth had previously resigned, but his resignation was not effective until March 13, according to the Tacoma Police Department.
In posting the video to social media, “expressing personal political opinions while wearing a Tacoma Police Department uniform and sitting in a patrol vehicle,” Hollingsworth violated department policy, Tacoma police said.
“The Department is in the process of serving the officer with administrative leave paperwork,” Tacoma police said in a Saturday news release. “The Department had no prior knowledge of the individual’s personal political views, or their intention to post those views to social media while at work.”
Hollingsworth subsequently posted another video to social media saying he was considering rescinding his resignation and fighting the disciplinary action “through the litigation process.”
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