Mount Holyoke College, a private liberal arts college for women in Massachusetts, has announced that its police chief was placed on administrative leave after students learned he had indicated support for the National Rifle Association and President Donald Trump on Twitter.
Daniel Hect was hired as the police chief for the school in February after previously serving in the position at Xavier University and Denison University, both in Ohio.
Hect announced the hiring on Feb. 6 via his personal Twitter account.
“I am excited to announce I have accepted the position of Chief of Police at Mount Holyoke and Smith colleges, two of the most prestigious all women’s institutions in the nation,” he wrote.
This is the most awful thing my alma mater, @mtholyoke, has done to date. Daniel Hect has worked for campus police for 30 years. He went out of his way to host events because students were upset that he… wait for it… LIKED TWEETS from @realDonaldTrump. https://t.co/8QaDgYscrJ
— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) April 11, 2019
He was placed on leave just two months later, university officials announced.
“Over the past few weeks, members of our community have expressed concerns about the ability of Chief Daniel Hect to develop the level of trust required to engage in community policing,” Mount Holyoke College President Sonya Stephens said in a campus-wide email on April 10 obtained by the openly conservative Daily Wire.
“We are working closely with Smith College on this issue, and I will continue to keep our campus community informed,” Stephens added.
The hiring was supported by some students but others were upset, noting that Hect expressed support for Trump and conservative groups on Twitter by “liking” their tweets.
The Blanchard Great Room hosted tension and tears on the evening of Thursday, March 19, as members of the Mount Holyoke administration held a forum for students to engage with the newly hired Chief of Campus Police, Daniel Hect. https://t.co/OrrOeUV0Of
— Mount Holyoke News (@themhnews) April 2, 2019
“Recently, Mount Holyoke College has hired a new chief of police named Daniel Hect. Despite multiple red flags found and raised by students during his hiring process, the administration still believes him to be an ideal choice for overseeing campus safety,” one student wrote, according to the Daily Wire.
“Personally, I believe it’s unacceptable for someone in charge of keeping any community safe, let alone a campus as diverse as MHC’s, to be publicly displaying his support for hateful regimes and organizations, as well as for individuals who demonize migrants from Mexico or other Latin American nations.”
Another student added that Hect’s actions on Twitter “show his dangerous support of Trump, as well as anti-immigration (specifically latinx immigrants) and pro-gun sentiments” and declared that Hect “cannot keep this community safe.”
In late March, Hect attended a community meeting at which some people cried, according to the student newspaper Mount Holyoke News. Others posted clips of the meeting with denigrating comments, such as one student who said, “Smith College how do you expect the new chief of police to ‘protect’ black, brown, and undocumented students in this community?”
“The concerns at the heart of the event primarily involved Hect’s social media presence, particularly on Twitter. Following Hect’s appointment to the position, students noticed that many of his liked tweets come from the National Rifle Association (NRA) and President Donald Trump. Some of those tweets also contained messages in support of President Trump’s proposed Mexican border wall, along with other opinions some students considered racist,” Mount Holyoke News stated.
daniel hect: “I don’t want to make this a political conversation” @smithcollege how do you expect the new chief of police to “protect” black, brown, and undocumented students in this community?
#scinclusion pic.twitter.com/S16hiXaUBw— grace (@ghartley19) April 10, 2019
Hect talked about himself and gave an overview of how he planned to guide the campus police and his background in “community-based police work.”
Many of the students who spoke brought up Hect’s Twitter “likes.” At one point, Hect said that the president’s viewpoints “do not represent our country very well.”
“When [Trump] did something that I thought he did well, I wanted to like [his tweets in reference to those successes] in hopes to lead to more good behavior,” Hect said. “I do not support Donald Trump. The hate that comes out of the White House is not okay.”
He repeatedly expressed regret for any words that “may have offended people” and said that he shouldn’t have “liked” tweets which included the phrase “build the wall,” which Trump aims to erect to help cut down on the surge of illegal immigration.
Saying that he had a lot of work to do, Hect added, “I started that today by going through my Twitter feed, and deleting some comments and likes.” He also appeared to delete his Twitter account.
Just a few weeks later, Hect was placed on administrative leave.
