Suspended chief reviewing options

HARRISBURG - A Pennsylvania police chief who posted a profanity-laden video online said Thursday that he was reviewing the legality of his 30-day unpaid suspension for using borough weapons and ammunition without prior approval.

Gilberton Police Chief Mark Kessler said that he believed he had permission to use the equipment he was shown firing, and that he did not believe he did anything wrong.

"It's a shame that they didn't stand up for the Constitution," Kessler said. "I might use some colorful language, I might have hurt some feelings, but I wasn't out to hurt anybody."

His attorney, Joseph P. Nahas, said Kessler "understands the punishment. He certainly cannot change their mind." While they have not discussed potential litigation, Nahas said, Kessler has an employment contract and state law gives him certain protections as a chief of police.

Kessler said he worried that the Borough Council, which voted, 5-1, late Wednesday to suspend him, might move to fire him before he is scheduled to return to the job. Kessler is a 14-year veteran of the one-man force in the town with a population of 800 in the heart of central Pennsylvania coal country.

Kessler said he purchased the ammunition and gun with his own money, among the many items he has funded for the police department. Kessler said Thursday his salary is $20,000 a year for the full-time position.

Calls seeking comment from the borough's elected officials and the borough solicitor were not immediately returned Thursday.

The public spectacle Wednesday began more than an hour before the council meeting when people began lining up for a seat in the Borough Council room.

Some of Kessler's armed supporters stood near him and the door to Borough Hall, blocking reporters. Some held signs, with one reading "Impeach Obama. Kessler for President."

Kessler's websites and videos display strong feelings about gun rights, and he said he has received death threats.

"It's disgusting that people stoop to that level," Kessler said. "I didn't threaten anybody. I made a video."

In one video, Kessler profanely complains about the United Nations and Secretary of State John Kerry. In another, he wears his badge and begins what appears to be a tutorial on how to shoot a gun, using a picture of a clown that he calls House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as the target.

The video that created the media firestorm was an "apology" for the Kerry video. In it, he fires restricted weapons on an old strip-mine road in the borough, away from homes, where he said he goes for target practice.

A link on Kessler's home page solicits donations for his Constitutional Security Force to "push back tyrants [and] restore what our Founding Fathers started."

Men wearing clothing that identified them as members of that force attended the Borough Council meeting Wednesday night. Kessler declined to say how many people make up the Constitutional Security Force.

The former coal miner drafted a resolution the Borough Council adopted this year that calls for "nullifying" any federal, state, or local laws that infringe on the Second Amendment.

Kessler posted his most recent video online after the suspension vote Wednesday. It shows him firing a machine gun at a Texas gun range while on vacation.

In the video, Kessler shoots a paper target of a gunman whom he describes as a "gangbanger," "New York City thug," and likely Obama voter.

After firing several shots, the target is riddled with bullet holes about the head.

"Here we go. That's gun control," he says in the video. "Right in the face."