Arkansas Police Chief Who Defied Mask Mandate Resigns After Calling for Violence Against 'Marxist Democrats': 'Take No Survivors'
A small-town Arkansas police chief is out of a job this week after letting his MAGA rip on social media on Friday night, advocating for violence against Democrats in response to baseless claims they were stealing the presidential election.
Lang Holland, the police chief of Marshall, Ark., shared the posts on Parler, a Twitter-like app popular among and targeted toward conservatives (yes, someone found a way to make something even worse than Twitter). Among the posts was a meme likening the 2020 election to the Revolutionary War.
“Death to all Marxist Democrats,” Holland wrote on Friday, under his own name and likeness. “Take no prisoners leave no survivors!!”
“When this is over and Trump is president for 4 more years. Do not go to sleep. Do not forget what these Marxist Democrat bastards have tried to do,” Holland wrote in another post. “When you see one in public get in their face do not give them any peace. Throw water on them at restaurants. Push them off sidewalks. Never let them forget they are traitors and have no right to live in this Republic after what they have done.”
The posts were so far-right spicy they trickled out to more mainstream social media platforms, like Reddit and Twitter. It likely didn’t help that Holland had already made news this year for publicly criticizing Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) for issuing a mask mandate for the state in July.
Holland defied the order and said he wouldn’t enforce it. He also implied that following the public safety protocol would lead to the United States decline into a “failed communist state” according to KATV.
As you might expect, people took issue with a person charged with protecting the public hopping online and advocating for flagrant violence, but the story took one more twist before Marshall Mayor Kevin Elliott called Holland into his office.
As the Washington Post writes, a new Parler account under Holland’s name appeared after his violent, right-wing posts went viral. The new account congratulated Democratic presidential-elect Joe Biden and featured pro-LGBTQ imagery.
“An associate showed me the FAKE profile of me on here and I was horrified and disgusted,” read a post from “the real Chief.”
“I actually lean hard left on most issues,” he said. “If I were really as abhorrent and morally bankrupt as the imitators would have you believe, I would have to be a complete imbecile to post such disgusting traits publicly.”
Well. He was right about one thing, at least.
According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Mayor Elliott called Holland into his office on Saturday to explain the violent posts. Holland, a decorated war vet whom Elliott once praised as the “best police chief that I’ve ever seen” and “very, very United States” apologized and offered his immediate resignation.
“The City of Marshall strongly condemns the actions of Mr. Holland in his posts to social media,” Elliott wrote in a letter on Saturday. “The Marshall community does not in any way support or condone bullying or threats of violence to anyone of any political persuasion...the Marshall Police force is here to serve and protect EVERYONE.”
Holland is far from the only Trump supporter having a hard time with the election results. As the Post noted, former Trump chief strategist Stephen Bannon was booted from Twitter last week after he called for violence against Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious-disease expert in the country. Donald Trump Jr., in a furious final bid to receive a father’s love for just once in his life, suggested his dad should wage “total war” over the election.
