Who is Derek Kammerzell? Seattle to pay $1.5M to ex-cop who posted Nazi rank on door
A suburban Seattle city is set to pay over $1.5 million to settle a dispute with a former assistant police chief who was disciplined twice for posting a Nazi rank insignia on his office. Former Kent assistant police chief Derek Kammerzell was also accused of joking about the Holocaust. Kammerzell was disciplined last July for hanging the insignia of Schutzstaffel Opergruppenfuhrer on his office door in September 2020. Schutzstaffel Opergruppenfuhrer is one of the Third Reich's highest ranks.
Kammerzell was with the department for nearly three decades. While he was initially given two weeks of unpaid leave after the incident in 2020, he was later put on paid administrative leave and asked to resign after furious residents and Jewish community members protested.
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The city's attempt to discipline Kammerzell a second time by placing him on paid leave and demanding that he resign subsequently led to a dispute that appeared headed for litigation. However, on Friday, June 10, interim city Chief Administrative Officer Arthur 'Pat' Fitzpatrick claimed that the city has resolved the issue through negotiation, The Seattle Times reported.
The city confirmed that they would pay Kammerzell $1,520,000 to resign. Kent Mayor Dana Ralph said that his decision to revisit the discipline issue could "come at a high cost." The city claimed that if the ex-cop had simply been fired, he would possibly have gotten his job back through arbitration due to federal and state labor laws.
What was Derek Kammerzell accused of?
An investigation by a Washington law firm found that Kammerzell knew the meaning of the insignia he placed above the nameplate on his office door. Hitler's paramilitary Schutzstaffel, or SS, was accused of the systematic murders of millions of Jews and others in Europe during World War II. In a separate incident, Kammerzell bragged about how he raised his hand in a 'heil Hitler sign' while posing with a public figure, apparently as a joke.
Kammerzell told investigators that the insignia was related to the TV series 'The Man in The High Tower'. The series reportedly talks about how the world might have been had the Nazis won the Second World War. He also claimed that he adopted the nickname 'Obergruppenfuhrer' after colleagues started calling him by the German name, which means 'senior group leader'. He claimed that he thought the symbol he hung on his door represented his position as a high-ranking cop with German lineage and was not aware that it had anything to do with a Nazi rank. He also denied praising Nazis or fascism.
Kammerzell told an investigator that he joked "more than once about his grandpa dying during the Holocaust by getting drunk and falling off the guard tower." However, he denied ever having bragged about giving a 'heil Hitler' salute and said that his colleague's claims about the same possibly stemmed from an incident where he made a joke while posing with Kent's mayor during Oktoberfest in 2019. He reportedly recalled saying, "Hey, you want to be seen with a German guy in lederhosen with our hands raised up?"
Kammerzell said claims that he once bragged about wearing a Hitler mustache are related to various styles he adopted during 'Movember' when men usually raise money for prostate cancer by growing their facial hair. The independent lawyer investigating his case, however, refused to believe any of his claims. The insignia was later taken down.
Police chief Rafael Padilla said that Kammerzell could either opt for unpaid leave or use his paid vacation time. Padilla said that his decision was based on the fact that Kammerzell had no disciplinary history and "above-satisfactory performance reviews."