There is a dank meme (I’m still not sure what that means) floating around twitter and the rest of the internets about Matt Heimbach getting fired from his job due to recent violent actions at a Trump rally in Kentucky.

Even our good friend and accurate historian blogger Brooks Simpson was taken in by this meme enough to make a post about it .

As much as we find Heimbach an appalling narcissistic glory-hound and racist screw up, we feel the need to set the record straight that the meme is both inaccurate and false.

On February 25th, 2016 the Indiana ABC news affiliate RTV reported that the Indiana Department of Child Services who hired Heimbach in January had also fired him rather quickly:

DCS terminated Heimbach on January 28, less than three weeks after his hire date.

Southern Poverty Law Center quickly picked up the story and also reported on it on February 25th, quoting the reason for his termination:

 

When pressed, the agency spokeswoman said Heimbach “was dismissed for his behavior at work.”

“His behavior in training was disruptive of the workplace, incompatible with public service, and not protected speech. For example, what I’ve been told is that, while in training, his response to a question suggested violence against a client,” Hungate told Hatewatch.

Heimbach himself wrote up about about his brief employment and even brags about the nature of the idiotic statements he made during his training that lead to his firing.

During his interview with RTV channel 6 Heimbach even expresses that he had a chance to appeal his case:

Now if one follows the timeline, the Trump rally where Heimbach became violent towards a female protester happened on March 1st, 2016. Heimbach was fired on January 28, 2016 almost a month and a half before that violent incident happened.

Hence, Heimbach was not fired because of his actions at the Trump rally because he was already fired.

His violent actions from the Trump rally on March 1st, however, might have killed his chances to appeal his case and be rehired back. That is really the only way it has affected his employment situation with the Indiana Department of Child Services, and we’re sure it’s making white nationalist attorney Kyle Bristow cry in his cereal, betting that he would have loved to exploit that case for publicity.

As much as we don’t like Heimbach and his ilk, it is very important that we as anti racists report on them as accurately as possible.

They are nasty enough and have enough to report on without making things up about them.