Arthur Love IV lost his job after expressing support for teenager Kyle Rittenhouse, who was charged with shooting protesters in Kenosha, Wis.

Tyrone Turner / DCist / WAMU

This story was last updated on Sept. 1 at 11:40 a.m.

An official in Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration has been fired after posting Facebook comments supporting the 17-year-old charged with shooting protesters in Kenosha, Wis., killing two of them.

The official—Arthur “Mac” Love IV—served as the deputy director of the Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives. He had been in the role since January 2015, according to his LinkedIn profile. Maryland Matters reports that Love posted and reposted comments, including memes, that defended the shooter, Kyle Rittenhouse.

Steven McAdams, Love’s supervisor, said in a statement he terminated Love on Saturday. “These divisive images and statements are inconsistent with the mission and core values of the Office of Community Initiatives,” the statement said.

Hogan spokesperson Shareese DeLeaver-Churchill released a statement supporting McAdams’ decision to fire Love. “These posts are obviously totally inappropriate,” she said.

In one post, Love shared a photo of actor Leonardo DiCaprio raising a glass of Champagne with the words, “When you see a skateboard wielding Antifa chickens*** get smoked by an AR toting 17-yr-old.”

In another post on Facebook, the Baltimore Sun reports, Love reposed pictures of Rittenhouse apparently cleaning graffiti. The original poster had written, “I’m grateful that conservatives are rallying behind this kid. He genuinely seems like a good person.”

In response to his firing, Love defended himself and said he might pursue legal action. But he stated he did not want his job back. “Would you?” he asked during a press conference Monday.

“I just want my life back,” he said.

Love said he was not officially told of his firing until Sunday, a day after it was reported in the press.

His spokesman, Gary Collins, said Love was denied due process. “Mac exercised his ability to have an opinion,” he said at the Monday press conference. Collins said Love is now “fearful for his life,” because of “something that was just a tongue-in-cheek meme.”

Both Love and Collins pointed to a recent controversial Facebook post from a different state employee and said there was a double standard in how the cases were handled. In April, state Republicans slammed Len Foxwell — the chief of staff to the Maryland comptroller — for a post that called for people who defy coronavirus restrictions to be put into a warehouse to “let Darwin work his magic.”

“Let’s lure them into a big, big warehouse (we’ll call it something real classy to suit their refined sensibilities, like ‘American MAGA Platinum Palace’),” he wrote, according to a screenshot of his post. Republicans said Foxwell was advocating for the death of Trump supporters. (His post linked to an NPR story about a group in Idaho that urged its followers to ignore restrictions, and Foxwell said he was speaking only about this group.)

“It shouldn’t be a question if you’re a Republican you get fired, and if you’re a Democrat, you keep a job. Or vice versa,” Love said.

Rittenhouse has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide and reckless homicide, among other crimes. Protests erupted in Kenosha after police shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times in the back. Blake is now paralyzed from the waist down.

Love’s posts about Rittenhouse drew condemnation from multiple elected officials in the state.

Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Del. Darryl Barnes (D-Prince George’s County) told Maryland Matters, “there’s no reason someone like this should be part of our state government.” In a statement to WBAL, the delegate thanked Hogan and his team for “acting swiftly” to remove Love, and added all legislators should speak out to show that hate will not be tolerated.

Del. Eric Luedtke (D-Montgomery County) tweeted a screenshot of one of Love’s posts and called for his firing.

“This is one of the FB posts by Governor Hogan’s Deputy Director of Community Initiatives,” the delegate tweeted, “who oversees—I’m not kidding—the Commission on African American History and Culture.”

The Governor’s Office of Community Initiatives manages Hogan’s ethnic and cultural commissions, as well as the Banneker-Douglass Museum, Maryland’s official African-American culture and history museum.

Love has been replaced by Kevin Craft, administrative director of the Governor’s Commission of African Affairs, according McAdams, his former supervisor.

This story was updated to add comments from Love’s Monday press conference. 

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