All Nate Silvester had to do was not make a TikTok and he would still be employed as an officer of the law right now.
The Idaho deputy who was placed on administrative leave a month ago after posting a TikTok mocking LeBron James is no longer employed with the Bellevue Marshal’s Office. Bellevue Mayor Ned Burns posted on the city’s Facebook page making the announcement that Bellevue Marshal deputy Nate Silvester was terminated effective May 27, 2021.
“During the week of May 20th, while on shift Deputy Marshal Silvester violated several clearly established City of Bellevue and State of Idaho Policing policies. After his previous policy violations Deputy Marshal Silvester was placed on probation and was on, what is called, a “last chance agreement” with his superior officers. Because of his continued policy violations, the Marshal has terminated Mr. Sylvester effective May 27th, 2021.
The policy violations have nothing to do with the tone or the tenor of his speech that he posts online. He was not terminated for the content of his speech; he was terminated for his failure to follow clearly laid out and well established policy.
The decision was solely made by the command structure within the Bellevue Marshals office and was not influenced in any way by me or by the City Council. We were informed of the decision, and as in the previous incident, left the final decision making to the Marshal and Deputy Marshal. The City Council and I respect the way the Marshal runs her department, and we are supportive of the decision that was made in regards to consequences for not following policy.
We wish Mr. Silvester the best, and we ask for calm and understanding.”
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“I am the latest target of cancel culture, Sean. That’s all it is,” former Bellevue deputy marshal Nate Silvester told “Hannity” on Thursday. “None of my other videos that depicted me in my uniform or involving body camera footage, none of those mattered. They didn’t care about those. It wasn’t until my LeBron James TikTok struck a political nerve that they started to pay attention and complain about it and came up with forms of discipline.”
The “Hannity” host encouraged the former officer to “sue their a–es off.”
“I am still trying to wrap my head around that. I was just fired this morning,” Silveseter said, but revealed that he planned to speak to his attorney to consider legal retribution.
As for his future in law enforcement, Silvester said, “I have considered that. I got offers from different agencies and elected officials from across the country. It’s not off the table.”
A GoFundMe that was made in the deputy’s name has now raised more than $531,000.
