Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Editorial:

Story about Metro cop’s rants draws strong reactions

An article two weeks ago in The Sunday told the story of Metro Police Detective Bobby Kinch, who wrote inflammatory posts on Facebook. Among them:

• “Let’s just get this over! Race war, Civil, Revolution? Bring it! I’m about as fed up as a man (American, Christian, White, Heterosexual) can get!”

• “It’s obviously coming to a boiling point! I say ‘F*** IT’! I’m ready now! Sooner or later, I would say sooner than later!” (The profanity was spelled out.)

• “Thought I could make a difference, thought it would get better! See the morale fabric of this Country get so trampled I wanna call it! GAME ON! I think we need a cleansing! Just me? What say you?”

Two colleagues reported the Facebook posts to department brass, who investigated, issued a written reprimand, let Kinch return to work and offered no public comment.

Readers had plenty to say, though. Here is a sampling.

I’m not saying this officer is right in what he is saying, and I didn’t like it too much. However, this is America! He has the right to say what he feels, just like you and I. I believe it’s called the First Amendment. — Bullheaded

This cop’s comments are very violent and hateful. … His attitude is utterly unacceptable. A good cop does not think that way. This is frightful. This man should be fired immediately. This is precisely the type of individual who should not be given a gun and badge. … If you’ve got one bad cop, then the department is tainted because they work together. — admin34

People get arrested for threatening a police officer. And this officer can threaten the President? — missceeeeee

He has given rise for further mistrust of good officers. He wants a revolution, a cleansing and restoration of morality? Sounds a lot like skin-heads, KKK, Adolf Hitler and other modern white supremacist groups. — Thepalehorse

These were two good cops, the ones who turned him in — two out of the entire department. … The Blue Wall of Silence is just a polite term for criminal conspiracy. — YngwieFM

Do these people not see the harm this one person does to the entire police force? How many decent officers do we have serving on the force? Decent public employees who show up to work every day and show discipline and work ethic? Yet, this one guy tarnishes all that work. — VegasDlight

Bobby Kinch has civil rights, such as the right to freedom of expression. Being an LVMPD officer does not negate those rights, it only places some limitations on them — rules which Kinch seems to both understand and follow. While in this day and age it’s not necessarily wise to make statements such as the ones in question (I do have empathy for his friends who suggested he keep quiet), doing so isn’t an automatic indictment that someone is reckless or foolish. … I don’t think it’s a stretch of the imagination to suggest that as a 20-plus-year veteran with LVMPD, Det. Kinch has come into contact with tens of thousands of members of the public, many of them minorities. Yet as the article pointed out, there are either no citizen complains, or at least no major complaints filed against him by the citizens. — T. Taylor

Think about what “freedom of speech” means. It doesn’t mean he can say whatever he wants and not be held accountable in any way, it means he isn’t going to go to jail for what he says. There are no shortage of people who have lost their jobs, reputation, spouses and you name it because they were complete morons on social media. — metropony

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