Joseph Klimmek #

Introduction #

Joseph Klimmek is a former Minneapolis police officer and seventeen-year veteran of the force who was fired in February 2026 — nearly two years after he used his private Facebook account to “like” a comment calling for the lynching of a Black murder suspect, according to disciplinary records published by the Minnesota Star Tribune. An Internal Affairs investigation found that Klimmek, who joined the department in 2009, knowingly endorsed a comment reading “get a [r]ope and find a tree” that was posted beneath a news story about a man accused of killing a police officer, in a private Facebook group for current and retired Minneapolis police employees. Then-Chief Brian O’Hara concluded the like violated the department’s social media policy, elevated the penalty recommended by a review panel to an automatic discharge, and wrote that Klimmek had “demonstrated a serious lack of integrity, ethics and character.”

Background Information #

Klimmek had been a Minneapolis officer since 2009 and was 46 years old at the time of his firing, with a disciplinary file stretching back more than a decade, according to the Star Tribune’s review of newly published records. He had accumulated at least 20 complaints since joining the force, four of which remained open when he was terminated, per the city’s officer complaint dashboard. Superiors had suspended him three times between 2017 and 2021 for violations ranging from excessive use of force to crashing his squad car, and in 2015 he received one-on-one social media training after a letter of reprimand over inflammatory Facebook comments — including a post about a local homicide spike that a Facebook friend accused him of using to glorify violent crime, an allegation he denied. Separately, Klimmek faced a gross misdemeanor charge of malicious punishment of a child filed in Anoka County in early 2025, stemming from allegations that he repeatedly spanked his 7-year-old with a large wooden spoon and left bruises; he pleaded guilty to an amended charge and was granted a stay of adjudication, meaning the case would be dismissed if he remained law-abiding, and was sentenced to two years of supervised probation and a parenting class on February 9, 2026.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #

The firing traces to a single Facebook interaction on March 17, 2024. Someone in the private law-enforcement group linked to a news article about authorities catching a man accused of murdering a police officer; the article and the thread included an image of the suspect, who appears to be Black. One commenter responded with a racist remark calling for the lynching of that suspect — “get a [r]ope and find a tree” — and Klimmek liked the comment from his private account, which does not use his real last name. A fellow member of the group provided screenshots to Internal Affairs, whose investigators interviewed Klimmek; he explained that he supports the death penalty and claimed he was unaware of “any racial connotations” associated with the phrasing. “It doesn’t have anything to do with MPD,” he told investigators, “but I also think MPD would support the death penalty for a cop killer.” According to the disciplinary report, Klimmek showed no remorse and said he did not believe liking the comment was inappropriate or would reflect negatively on the department.

Public Reaction and Consequences #

A review panel composed of three citizen members of the Community Commission on Police Oversight and two sworn officers found that Klimmek violated the department’s social media policy and recommended discipline, but O’Hara disagreed with the severity assessment and elevated the penalty to an automatic discharge. In a February 20 termination letter, O’Hara wrote that Klimmek’s actions degraded the professionalism of the agency and “demonstrated a serious lack of integrity, ethics and character.” “Officer Klimmek expressed a sentiment that is patently inconsistent with being a law enforcement officer,” O’Hara wrote, adding that officers “do not have the power of ‘judge, jury, and executioner’” and must respect due process regardless of personal views on the death penalty. In his determination letter, O’Hara wrote that Klimmek’s claim of not knowing the phrase “get a rope and find a tree” is affiliated with “an unquestionably violent history of racism and slavery…demonstrates how out of touch he is with history,” concluding: “The public cannot trust his judgement and I cannot trust his judgement.” O’Hara emphasized that the conduct was especially concerning given the department’s position after George Floyd’s murder and scathing reports from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice finding a pattern of racial discrimination at MPD, which Klimmek’s conduct threatened to derail.

Current Status #

Klimmek was relieved of duty in December 2025 because of the pending complaints and spent roughly three months on paid leave while the case moved through the city’s backlogged Internal Affairs system, before O’Hara acted on the lynching-comment case first and fired him on February 20, 2026. The Minneapolis police union is contesting the dismissal but declined to speak about the case, and Klimmek declined comment through his attorney. A person with direct knowledge of the case told the Star Tribune that Klimmek has requested a veteran’s preference hearing to try to regain his job through state arbitration. His attorney, Joe Tamburino, said in a statement that “Mr. Klimmek appreciates that the criminal charge did not result in a conviction, and has no comment on any other matters.”

Impact on Their Career/Life #

A seventeen-year career ended not over an incident on the street but over a single “like” — an action Klimmek reportedly considered so inconsequential that he told investigators it “doesn’t have anything to do with MPD.” The discharge also closed out one of his open complaints: the case in which he was caught on camera sleeping in his marked squad car while on the clock, an image that was mocked on Instagram. His case has become a reference point in Minneapolis policing debates over accountability, social media conduct, and the slow pace of Internal Affairs — a backlog that kept him on paid leave for months after the department already knew of the post. With the union contesting the firing and a veteran’s preference hearing requested, the final chapter of his career rests with a state arbitrator rather than the department that dismissed him.