Why is AZ Rep. John Gillette Such an Asshole?

In many ways, Arizona Representative John Gillette looks like he would be a model citizen: he’s a decorated combat veteran, awarded a Bronze Star for his outstanding service in the Gulf War, a police officer following his military career, a Christian, a father, a husband, and now a duly elected Arizona State legislator.

So why does he keep saying such vile and hateful things on social media about Muslims and other minorities? Why did he call for the hanging or firing squad execution of a Indian-American Congresswoman whose relgion is Hinduism (maybe all brown people are Muslims to Gillette?), supposedly because he deemed her guilty of calling for the violent overthrow of the Trump Admin because she called for opposition protesters to be ‘strike ready’ (perhaps he doesn’t know that ‘strike’ also means withholding of labor?), even as he expressed support for the J6 rioters, who actually WERE trying to overthrow our government by force?

Well, look under the hood a bit, and it seems Rep. Gillette is not quite so ideal and has some issues with self-control and emotional/psychological regulation. Gillette had to resign from the police force after his 42 different internal investigations and complaints against him for unbecoming, unethical, and problematic behavior were made public.

The internal affairs file on John Gillette from his time as a Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy contains over 40 complaints spanning more than 13 years, making him the most investigated deputy in the department during that period. The specific allegations documented in the file include:

• Excessive force: Numerous complaints accused Gillette of using unnecessary or excessive force during arrests and interactions with suspects and civilians.
• Sexual assault: At least three complaints, including from female civilians, alleged he engaged in unwelcome or inappropriate physical contact during law enforcement encounters.
• Use of profanity and sexual language: Multiple reports cited Gillette for using inappropriate language, including sexual remarks and profanity, while on duty.
• Operating outside standard procedures: Gillette was found on one occasion in a strip club parking lot while off duty, smelling of alcohol and claiming to be working undercover without authorization.
• Retaliation and excessive force: Complaints noted that Gillette would sometimes act independently—making arrests or detentions without notifying supervisors or backup—and allegedly retaliated against certain individuals.

Disciplinary actions resulting from these complaints ranged from unpaid leave and short suspensions to official reprimands, though most violations were ultimately classified by department leadership as “minor infractions.” Gillette himself denied committing any criminal or major wrongdoing and characterized his rule violations as administrative or technical in nature.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t consider sexual assault, excessive force, public inebriation, and a pattern of harrassment and retaliatory arrests to be ‘administrative’ or ‘technical’. To me, as a former prosecutor who worked with both good cops and bad, such behavior is characteristic of a bad cop with serious personal and psychological issues who should not be on the job.

Rep. Gillette was a bad cop. I don’t see anthing in his record to indicate he was also a dirty cop, but he was definitely a bad-tempered cop who abusedhis authority and used his position improperly to harrass and harm those around him. Exactly the kind of guy you don’t want to hand any kind of public or legal authority.

So, given his undoubtedly scarring war experiences in the Middle East, and his poor boundaries around his public authority and his personal feelings and motives, it really isn’t suprising that he acts like an asshat on social media when he’s given a position of public leadership and authority.

Rep. Gillette is undoubtedly a bigot as regards minority races and religions – especially Muslims; I suspect that he would enthusiastically embrace that label, in fact. He’s a hothead who doesn’t hesitate to mouth off about his hatreds; in other words, he’s a bomb thrower who encourages and would probably condone political violence by his own side. He’s quick to judge the worst in those whom he considers enemies, and quick to overlook the flaws in those he considers allies; in other words, a hypocrite. I’ve never met him, but if I ever do, I suspect he would be personally aggressive and threatening; in other words, he’s probably a bully.

In short, he’s a genuine, grade A, asshole. I think #MadDogGillette is a perfect summary of Gillette’s political personae.

John, we already have our fill of biggoted, inflamitory, and hypocritical MAGA assholes in our public life – we don’t really need another. Do Arizona a favor and fuck off back to private life where you can harrass and bully those around you in private, rather than flaunting your attrocious and hateful personality in public, why don’t you?

Of course, he won’t. Gillette is about the perfect politician for the MAGA fascist movement – in fact, he’s something of a poster boy for fascist assholery. So somebody has got to make him.

And that, my friends, is exactly the problem and why Trump’s MAGAts aren’t conservatives – in any sense of the word – any more. Gillette and the (mainly) guys like him aren’t American conservatives at all; they are radical, wild-eyed, mad dog revolutionaries who want to tear down the American democratic republican form of government, piss on it, and replace it with a fascist authoritiarian order in which guys (mainly) like Gillette will have total authority to impose their hateful, bigotted, violent, hypocritical and sexist views, moral judgements, and sadistic impulses on the rest of society.

Regular old conservatives who want to preserve our institutions, our social heirarchies, and the economic status quo, we Democrats can work with, certainly compromise with, even sometimes agree with. But radical fascists like Trump and Gillette who just want to burn our society down to remake society in their own hateful, bigotted asshole image, Democrats can never tolerate or work with. We must simply fight them, defeat them, and make them crawl back in their fox holes, and make them WANT to keep their hateful views and violent proclivities to themselves.

We need some hard charging and hard working Dems to step up and run a hard race in LD 30 to make the case in that district for voters to put #MadDogGillette back in his kennel. We currently have a statement of interest in the State Senate race there from Democrat Brian McMahan. Best of luck to Brian! We need at least one Dem to step up for the House race. And we need our State Party to lend a hand; LD30 is the deepest red district in AZ! We simply will never make inroads, build a viable organization, and win back our state lege if we don’t give serious (i.e. $$$) support to run candidates in every district.

Or maybe we could even get behind a real conservative Republican, who is not a bomb-throwing asshole and is fed up with their party’s current fascist trajectory, to step up and primary this mad dog? I’m sure one reason why Gillette feels so free to show us all his nasty asshole is that he feels no concern for his re-election, no matter what shit he smears around social media. Let’s make fascists afraid again! That’s actually one of my current bumper stickers! Get yours here (not affiliated, no commission, just where I got mine).