A brief protest rally Tuesday morning in front of the Hopkinsville Police Department was led by several Black residents questioning why an officer is still employed after posting social media videos they and others viewed as racist.
“This is still an issue, and people want something done,” said Bonnie Lynch.
The group carried signs that read, “Time for a new system,” “No justice, no peace” and “Fix this!”
Lynch said they want Officer Jerimiah Kline to be dismissed from HPD. She said Tuesday’s rally lasted about 30 minutes, and she described it as an effort to show city officials that the controversy has not been forgotten.
Lynch said no one from the police department engaged with the protestors as they walked back and forth on the sidewalk along North Main Street in front of HPD headquarters.
A retired educator, Lynch has been active for years in Hopkinsville civic organizations. She has served as an officer in the local and state League of Women Voters, and she is married to former Mayor Wendell Lynch. She is a former director of the Christian County Imagination Library.
Others who participated in the rally included the Rev. Perry Greenwade, Simon Ladd, retired health department administrator Anita Simmons, Andre Gold, retired educator Gwenda Motley, who has led efforts to memorialize her late sister, feminist author bell hooks, in Hopkinsville, and the Rev. John Banks, who is the former president of the local NAACP. (Motley is a Hoptown Chronicle board member.)
In early August, Kline posted a TikTok video that shows him lip-syncing to the country musician Jason Aldean’s song “Try That is a Small Town.” Aldean’s video featuring the song had already stirred controversy and been removed from CMT when Kline posted his video. Kline’s video went viral after a TikToker with a huge following drew attention to it.
In an email Tuesday afternoon, Police Chief Jason Newby told Hoptown Chronicle that Kline “is still employed and that will not change.” He added Kline is assigned to administrative duty and that he is not working on patrol.
Documents the city provided to Hoptown Chronicle in response to an Aug. 10 open records request did not include any records indicating disciplinary action resulting from the TikTok controversy. Kline was required to complete online courses in diversity-type training that lasted a combined 1 hour and 25 minutes.
At the Aug. 15 city council meeting, 10 people critical of Kline and five who were supportive of him addressed council member.
The controversy was also the topic of an Aug. 21 meeting of the local NAACP chapter in city council chambers, where Mayor James R. Knight Jr., Judge-Executive Jerry Gilliam and Newby answered questions from NAACP president Terri Redwine. At that meeting, Redwine said she had spoken privately with Newby and that the NAACP would not “continue to debate the Jerimiah Kline debacle.”
Newby said Tuesday the city’s human resources director, Kenneth Grabara, is finalizing training that all city employees — not just police officers — will take at Hopkinsville Community College.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
