GILBERTON, Pa., July 31 (UPI) -- Gilberton, Pa., Police Chief Mark Kessler, who called liberals "libtards" and told critics "[expletive] you" in online posts, said he has been suspended.
Kessler announced his suspension to a crowd gathered for a town council hearing on the matter, the Allentown (Pa.) Morning Call reported.
Kessler appeared recently in a YouTube clip firing federally restricted weapons along an old strip-mining road while unleashing a stream of vulgarity -- referring at one point to an earlier clip that had drawn criticism for its vulgar content, the newspaper reported last week.
A follow-up video shows Kessler appearing to apologize for the earlier clip, and then taking back the apology.
"This boy don't roll that way ... ," he says. "For all you people out there who cried and cried about, oh, I used profanity, f--- you."
Kessler has called himself a "strict Second Amendment advocate" and complained negative public reaction to his videos threatened his First Amendment rights.
WFMZ-TV, Allentown, said the town council voted 5-2 to suspend Kessler for 30 days without pay. The report said Kessler accepted the decision and was looking forward to going to back to work at the end of the suspension.
Some members of the public who showed up for a hear on the issue carried weapons, a police helicopter flew in the vicinity, and police in vehicles and on horseback staked out the area around the borough hall as council members took up the issue, the newspaper said.
Gilberton Mayor Mary Lou Hannon said last week the borough cannot control what Kessler does on his own time.
