An Office Depot worker who was seen in a video apparently refusing to print a poster of the assassinated conservative activist Charlie Kirk for a vigil has been fired, according to the retailer.
“Upon learning of the incident, we immediately reached out to the customer to address their concerns and seek to fulfill their order to their satisfaction,” the company said in a statement on X. “We have also launched an immediate internal review and, as a result, the associate involved is no longer with the organization.”
The incident in question took place Friday afternoon at an Office Depot location in Portage, Michigan.
In a video of the incident shared by Kelly Sackett, chairwoman of the Kalamazoo County Republican Party, an Office Depot worker can be heard saying, “We don’t print propaganda. It’s propaganda, I’m sorry. We don’t print that here.”
“This is for a prayer tonight, for a prayer vigil,” one of the individuals trying to print the poster says in response.
Matthew DePerno, a lawyer representing the party, told The Independent that the confrontation occurred when a group of youth GOP leaders attempted to organize a vigil in honor of Kirk.
DePerno, who personally knew Kirk, said the late activist was a positive force who recruited numerous young people to conservative politics with regular events at college campuses like the one where Kirk was fatally shot in Utah this week.
The lawyer called it “outrageous” that a major chain would prevent someone from printing a simple poster featuring Kirk’s name and date of birth.
“These kids wanted to be involved in the event, in the prayer vigil, and Office Depot should not have told them that this was political propaganda or refused to print it,” DePerno said.
“They hired employees who displayed and pushed their own politics on customers.”
The lawyer added that when he called Office Depot customer service, he was routed to a call center outside the U.S. and told company policy prevented printing such posters, even though DePerno said the local GOP has used Office Depot to print past political materials like posters and yard signs.
The group then went to a FedEx store and printed their posters, which were used for a vigil event in Bronson Park in Kalamazoo on Friday evening.
Multiple employees were involved in the decision to deny printing the poster, and DePerno hopes they also face accountability.
“We wanted a message of unity,” organizer Dayne Webb, youth chair of the Kalamazoo Young Republican Party, said at the vigil event, WWMT reports. “You know that’s what Charlie was all about, is bringing people together, no matter if they disagreed or agreed. At this time when people want to turn to violence, or turn to divisiveness, and demonize the other side, we can’t do that.”
“Despite everything, the vigil happened and it was beautiful,” Webb later wrote on Facebook, sharing a link to the news story about the Office Depot incident.
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