Behold the man posturing and asserting his manliness by firing guns on camera, as if that is a talent or an accomplishment. You will not be able to watch this video without thinking “What an ass…”
He’s the police chief of some tiny little town in Eastern Pennsylvania, a place a fifth the size of Morris, Minnesota. I think he might be overcompensating a little bit with the gun-waving.
But besides being an arrogant idiot, he’s a real danger — this is not the kind of tinpot tyrant you want armed and eager to open fire. But at least it leads to a little amusement.
He went to a bar, got involved in a bar fight, and drew a gun. Already you’re thinking this man has crossed the line and ought to be in jail. But here’s the funny part:
Mark Kessler is what you get when you give Barney Fife an M-16. Which is kind of a metaphor for America, if you think about it.
Heh.
From the link:
My emphasis.
Yeah, it was that pesky gun that did the shooting.
(Naughty, naughty gun, discharging and shooting the nice man in the hand!)
Wow, what a proficient display of professionalism.
So, guns don’t kill people, except when you are a fucking irresponsible idiot, then it totally is the fault of the gun if you shoot yourself?
Umm, I find it hard to believe these weapons are legal (they are fully automatic and the pistol must have been modified). Assuming they are somehow confiscated contraband or “official issue” – surely this is use and behaviour that crosses some sort of professional line? How the hell can the States claim any form of international moral authority if these are acceptable values for law enforcers.
Interesting, but I did notice that linked news story is two years old.
The bar fight discharge incident is two years old, but the profanity and bullet-riddled videos are current.
Police chief in Schuylkill County stirs up controversy with videos
July 25, 2013
link
Ok, that’s one scary man. Calling people ‘liberturds’ while discharging fully-automatic weapons, I’m just glad he isn’t my police chief.
Interestingly, he has his own website: http://www.chiefkessler.com/
It’s as scary as the video.
Wow! And all it would take to stop the carnage those weapons can cause is for a teacher to own one too. Sooooo simple.
Barney Fife was a klutz and a goof, but not a proud and unrepentant douchebag.
I never understood how some people see real guns as toys. My idea is that if you want to look intimidating, use a chainsaw instead of a gun. It’s less dangerous but it sure is more flashy. For the low tech, a blood-soaked butcher knife would work too.
If you look on his website the only anti-american organization he has is the SPLC
Seriously.
I have a feeling that the Chief may have some strong pride in something about himself…
Possibly his whiteness.
Oh jeez. He’s got a bunch of InfoWars videos on there too.
Not shocking.
The pistol might not have been extensively modified. The giant drum magazine is obviously not standard, but you can probably find and attach a carrying strap and a stock to a pistol without too much trouble, especially with the resources that any police department has. Looking at it, that gun is probably a Glock. The Glock 18 can fire fully automatic without any modification, since it was designed as a machine pistol to be used by a counter-terrorism unit.
Why a police chief in some po-dunk Pennsylvania town that manages to be smaller than frakking Morris needs a machine pistol designed to be used in a counter-terrorism situation is beyond me.
Because these are the real geeks. They fetishise guns and their definition of “freedom” and Patriotism to a point that goes far further than any Trekkie or Gamer or whatever.
They’re so down the rabbit hole on their big boy play time war games they think it’s actually real.
Unfortunately because of their chosen geekout, they’re also dangerous as fuck.
Poor chief.
If only he’d been armed, he might not have been shot like this.
Clearly the answer is MOAR GUNZZZ!
From his site:
Wait… God passed the 2nd Amendment?
Also, I wish he’d spend less effort on the parenthetical punctuation, and more on things like actual question marks at the end of sentences.
This is a very scary individual.
I don’t fucking mind if fucking people drop fucking f-fucking bombs when they are fucking talking. I’m more fucking scared when they fucking have to fucking shoot fucking guns to make some fucking point.
I am disappointed in all the negative feedback that the Chief seems to be garnering here. I would have expected more compassion for a man who has clearly had a devastating injury resulting in the loss of most, if not all, of his penis.
It was his girlfriend that was hit, not his cock.
Slacktivist posted on this guy yesterday. Several of Kessler’s fans showed up in comments to defend him (read: post semi-coherent rants about “libtards”, and otherwise put on an amusing/alarming display of paranoid-delusion-on-parade). They’re…..*interesting* people.
@19&20 win the thread, jointly.
Ok, he actually says this on his site:
Do you think this guys head would explode if you told him that his god was imaginary? I would try it, but I fear he would simply shoot me in the face.
This A-hole is the reason why liberals need to arm themselves. Take advantage of the concealed gun carry laws so you can protect yourselves against these dangerous thugs – as a liberal, I did!
So, we have a serving police officer ranting about the tyranny of government… Nope, no cognitive dissonance there.
I wonder if the chief used department resources (the camera, guns, ammo, firing range) to make his stupid political video. And if so, did the town mayor or manager allow him to use public property for obvious reelection videos?
Is there some reason he is ‘aiming’ his fully automatic weapons by holding them really close to his face?
Do you really need to aim those things? Especially when you’re shooting at gravel ?
Or does it look cooler?
@John Morales #1
Does that mean guns do kill people?
The second I see a firearm with one of those large capacity drum magazines fitted to it, I think of the various hideous mass shootings that have been carried out with exactly those types of weapons. Seeing any gun-fetishist waving such a weapon around is distrubing, but when the gun obsessed arsehat in question is a police officer – the very people charged with preventing those types of crimes – I find myself very glad indeed that I live in a country with more rational gun laws.
As scary as the notion of this worst possible example of a law enforcement officer is – a deeply inadequate person who makes up for their myriad deficiencies of character with an arsenal of guns is dangerous indeed – I am still very tickled by the fact that this posturing would-be Rambo managed to blow a hole in his own hand. He is a walking, ranting advertisement for tighter gun controls if ever I saw one.
Reading the article Reginald linked to it sounds like he’s a hired sheriff, not an elected one, as it says he’s had a 14 year contract with the town.
The council sound like a bunch of idiots as well. Why the hell would the police force of a town of 800, with apparently only one employee, Kessler, need 3 automatic weapons? Or one, for that matter? Not to mention that the shortened barrel AK in the clip probably is very inaccurate,, and Kessler probably doesn’t have the training, or range time, to use the Glock 18 effectively. Not that I can see any use for a Glock 18 for a small town sheriff.
On a more serious note, his “argument” appears to consist of repeating the word he said which upset people, calling those who were upset “libtards” and “pussies”, telling them to “man the fuck up”, and then shooting various weapons into a presumably empty piece of land (the latter part constitutes an implied threat, surely?).
… This guy’s a fucking Chief of police?!
as if that is a talent or an accomplishment
As someone who lettered in college in target shooting, properly handling firearms for responsible sporting purposes can be a talent and an accomplishment.
On the other hand, if we outlaw morons, only guns will have morons … or something like that …
… only guns will have morons …
That’s it!!!
Guns are actually demons and they possess the gun-thumpers!
They can’t help themselves!
I live and work in Alabama but was born and raised in Pennsylvania. People sometimes asked me if that move involved a lot of culture shock. NO!
I should add that as far as automatic weapons go, yes, in most cases you do actually want to aim them carefully, just like you would with any other firearm.
If only he had a second pistol in his other hand he could have shot the offending pistol before it discharged. Or at least threatened it with deadly force, making it think twice about discharging.
@chigau
What did I do to deserve getting lumped in with Chief Nobhead up there^? :(
Barney Fife only had one bullet, and Andy made him keep it in his shirt pocket.
(btw, Schuylkill Co. PA is coal-mining country marking essentially the northern terminus of the Appalachian Mtns. Make of that what you will.)
Speaking as a member of a dictatorial and oppressive regime that you good and true Americans freed yourself from:
Fuck me this guy’s clearly a deluded arsehole.
Louis
Kessler must be fired.
Guns don’t kill people. Guns shoot people in the hand.
Well, he’d shoot somebody in the face…
What makes you moron believe you’ll draw faster? Invest in a bulletproof vest if you can’t afford to move.
Was this perhaps a rhetorical question? :-)
Huh. I thought everybody knew the “joke” about Pennsyltucky: “Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in between.”
I’m trying to look on the bright side and hoping that ultimately this is a man doing what he can to improve voter turnout in the next local election.
umkomasia @ 34:
Old joke: Pennsylvania consists of Philadelphia at one end and Pittsburgh at the other and Alabama in between.
So I guess it leaves it to me to say, “What an asshole”.
well, and Birmingham AL (say ‘BUMinhayem) is or used to be Pittsburgh South, so that leaves just Philly.
Really does give you the warm fuzzies to know that just about every piece of firearms legislation out there, particularly at the state level, exempts current & retired law enforcement, regardless of whether or not they use the weapon in the line of duty.
This must be one of those mythical cases of a firearm being used to stop someone dangerous.
Eamon Knight @21:
Actually, I think there’s only one real ‘fan’ posting there… he’s just very loud and prolific, as well as having the usual sense of that sort of person in that he must be right, therefore everybody else is wrong, and he just needs to find out how to declare them wrong.
There’s been three by my count, though the others seem to have only a single comment each (though one of them called me a “democrat liberal fascist racist”, which is an impressive example of attempting to insult by stringing together random words). But yeah: that one guy “Rowdy”. Anyone who defends Joe Arpaio….
Its always baffles that assholes like this think to impress anyone with their blam-blam exhibitions. I bet that cretin produces plenty extra saliva to drool with whenever it presses the trigger.
There is a defect in the brain behind that kind of behavior.
What’s scary is that people think this was police chief material. Or maybe it just shot its way to that position.
Oooooh, he certainly is manly. But he also hurt my wussy feelings. I’d like to get some automatic weapons so I can also be manly.
“The bar fight discharge incident is two years old, but the profanity and bullet-riddled videos are current.”
That actually makes it worse. He made these stupid videos after demonstrating to the world that he’s too irresponsible to carry a gun in public.
It’s nice to see that his hand healed up so well. Too bad about his brain.
Gilberton is one county north of me, about an hours drive into coal country. They cling to their guns and their Bibles, and will blame Obama no matter how things turn out for the coal industry, which already abandoned them half a century ago.
So, yeah, it’s funny as hell when an assh*le like this guy shoots himself. How the hell do you shoot yourself in our own hand?
How has this guy not been fired? Who on earth tolerates this kind of behavior from a law enforcement officer, particular the head law enforcement officer? And it seems he has a pattern of irresponsible behavior with firearms. I would be terrified to live there. How could I expect equal treatment under the law as a liberal and an atheist from a police department whose head produces videos like this? How could I even feel safe expressing myself when this guy is still heading the police department two years after shooting himself in a bar fight where no one else had a weapon and screaming obscenities about “libtards” before firing off a few hundred rounds of ammo?
I noticed in the other story that it says the police department owns the weapons. So even if you think he has the right to make videos expressing his political opinion (questionable as an employee and representative of the government), he certainly has no right to use city property to make his personal political videos.
Seriously, I have to repeat myself. If I lived there I would be outright terrified. Not kidding at all. Terrified and doing everything in my power to get him fired.
There is substantial irony in a person who is so obviously still a juvenile telling others to “man up”.
Are we sure he shot himself? Maybe it’s just a touch of stigmata.
Call Chief Kessler’s cell phone number 570-205-0585
and the mayor here and let her know what you think:
Gilberton Borough Office–(570) 874-4790
According to an article someone linked to up-thread, he actually bought the guns with his own money and donated them. How nice. That way he gets to play with weapons that would (I believe) be illegal for him to possess personally. The fucker is too stupid to be allowed to own a Nerf gun.
For a manly man, he surely done got scrawny arms!
The Rude Pundit says it far better than I can:
http://www.rudepundit.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-review-of-chief-mark-kesslers-short.html
If he had shot himself in the foot it could have been ruled attempted suicide.
evilDoug
Not exactly, you need a title 2 (National Firearms Act) license in order to possess machine guns (at least in Pennsylvania, some states have banned possession of machine guns outright).
In order to get a title 2 license you need the signature of the local chief of police.
So that’s handy, isn’t it?
Not sure why he bought & donated them, probably a tax dodge since machine guns are generally very expensive (north of 10 grand each due to limited availability).
<3 @ Azkyroth
Does this jackass actually grab his crotch after firing off the first gun? Nope. Nothing Freudian going on there.
I have a rule that I wish more women (and men) would adopt, and perhaps it might change some hearts and minds, or even just behaviour (which is as good as any a place to start): If a man uses the term ‘cocksucker’ as an insult, he doesn’t get his cock sucked.
I totally guessing here, but it seems to me likely that the town has to carry some sort of insurance against wrongful acts by its agents. Assuming that it does, it would be interesting to send the insurance underwriter a link or two. If might be claimed that the guy has been a cop there for 14 years without causing major problems, but while I’m in a guessing mood I would also guess that his conduct has become more outrageous in recent years, what with Obama fixin’ to take away his guns an’ all.
What would the applicable law have to say about personal liability of the mayor and council members in the event of this guy doing something not covered by insurance?
I like how conservatives flip-flop. Sometime the police are jackbooted thugs taking away your freedoms, sometimes police are automatically to be trusted despite insane behavior.
Freudian: A guy I worked with many years ago told me he used to own a lot of guns. He said he was cleaning one one night, and realized he was stroking it exactly as if he were masturbating. He said he realized that wasn’t a coincidence, and he got rid of all the guns.
Barney Fife was never in charge. He was only permitted to carry a single bullet – and his right to that was always revoked, after he did any jackassery of any sort with his gun. That just makes the comparison somewhat more terrifying.
I think what he’s doing can be aptly described as “Yosemite Sam-ing.”
This moron and his mayor were both sued by a member of the town council in 2011 for civil rights violations. The councilman was pissed with the police chief for his failure to enforce the laws against the kids who were riding their ATVs on his property, so he left a profanity laced complaint on the mayor’s voicemail. The chief arrested the councilman, and took him to the local prison where he was strip searched and left to cool for 12 hours. The councilman was then released without charges.
The city settled the suit for 15,000 dollars plus court costs
This man thinks he’s a crusader agsinst the jack-booted thug, when in fact he’s the chief thug.
And ya wanna bet that if the town gets into financial trouble over these shenanigans, or any other issue, they’ll immediately be on the phone to the state government or the feds looking for some sort of handout.
So did anyone else think “I am Uzimandeus, King of Kings. Look on my works ye mighty and despair!” While they were watching this?
Ah, so the gun toting idiot is an oblivious hypocritical gun toting idiot. I’m shocked, shocked I say!
Oh wait, my mistake. That’s just the electric eel in my pants.
FossilFishy @ 72
I used to think that the bigoted, dumb-ass, small town sheriff portrayed in many US movies was an exaggeration; now I see it was an understatement!
I think it would be preferable that he took a more even handed approach.
I’ll get my coat.
Just thinking about the cost of ammo, isn’t that specimen basically punctuating his speech by doing the equivalent of tearing up dollar bills?
(Or is it cheap as dirt over there?)
@observer
re #70
That is exactly the kind of thing I would be terrified of if I lived there. How could I, a card carrying liberal and supporter of gun control, expect equal treatment under the law? How could I feel safe from being shot by the chief of police and accused of assaulting an officer to cover it up? How would I know, when someone vandalized my home and stole my Obama yard sign, that it wasn’t the chief of police himself?
In short, I guess I would just begin to feel what it is like to be black in America if he was my police chief.
@bassmanpete – Yeah, I thought of that, too. I at least thought they were all on the south, and had mostly been run out of office by the Justice Department by now.
Yup, he’s acharmer alright. /sarcasrm
Is it just me or does Kessler look like he’s drunk in that clip?
Scary too is what I learnt from here :
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2013/07/24/pa-police-chief-loves-guns-profanity-birtherism-alex-jones-militias-anti-semitic-rock-music-and-serving-on-the-board-of-education/
“Lovely” may not be quite the right word for it.
This dangerous idiot is worse than you know. He is a founder and recruiter for a paramilitary militia (which is illegal in PA) and falsely-arrested and strip-searched a borough councilman because he didn’t like the councilman’s complaints about noisy neighbors (which resulted in a successful lawsuit). See here: http://newtrajectory.blogspot.com/2013/07/police-chief-mark-kessler-dangerous.html
Hey, good news people! This video got him suspended!
Unfortunately, not fired, and the suspension is not nearly long enough. But it’s something!