WV Correctional Officers In Training Threw Up Nazi Salutes In Class Photo
A class of West Virginia correctional officers in training took a group photo in which they threw up Nazi salutes.
Several government employees have been suspended over the photo and an internal investigation is ongoing, the Charleston Gazette-Mail
reported Thursday.
Earlier Thursday, local news channel WCHS
reported that the secretary of the state’s Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, Jeff Sandy, had condemned “conduct unbecoming by members” of the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation in a letter to department employees.
The department provided a copy of Sandy’s letter and a copy of the photo in question, with faces blurred, to TPM on Thursday.
“I have seen the photo of Basic Training Class Number 18. I condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” Sandy wrote, per WCHS. “It is distasteful, hurtful, disturbing, highly insensitive and completely inappropriate.”
In a statement to TPM, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) said he’d ordered the termination of “all those that are found to be involved in this conduct.”
The photo includes the caption “HAIL BYRD!”
Brian Abraham, Justice’s legal advisor, told the Gazette-Mail that was a reference to the director of the training class in the picture.
