West Virginia Prison Employees Suspended Over Nazi Salute Photo
Multiple employees of the West Virginia Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation have been suspended after more than 30 participants in a basic training program did the Nazi salute in their graduation picture, local TV station WCHS reported Thursday.
West Virginia Governor Jim Justice condemned the photo and called for the firing of everyone involved. “This will not be tolerated on my watch – within the Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation – or within any agency of state government,” he said in a statement.
The photo claims that the class was conducted from October 21 to November 27. The caption above the photo stated “Hail Byrd!” A spokesman for Gov. Justice said it was a reference to the training class’s director, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.
West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety cabinet secretary Jeff Sandy said in a letter to employees that the state corrections commissioner had ordered all copies of the photo destroyed. He added that local faith leaders had been informed of the incident, and their views would be solicited in order to improve the training program in the future. The letter does not explain who is in the photo or how it came about.
Rabbi Victor Urecki of B’nai Jacob Synagogue in Charleston said he had been informed of the photo. “It was disturbing, shocking and troubling, and I am waiting to hear more about how it all unfolded and am prepared to help in what will be difficult days forward for our state,” he said in a statement.
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at pink@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink
Watch This ‘Snarky, Bisexual, Jewish’ Law Professor’s Impeachment Testimony
Pamela Karlan, a professor of law at Stanford University, made waves on social media Wednesday with her testimony on the impeachment inquiry before the House Judiciary Committee.
Karlan, who has referred to herself as a “snarky, bisexual, Jewish” woman, spoke forcefully about how Donald Trump’s quest for a quid pro quo from the Ukrainian government was antithetical to American democracy.
“I see a pattern in which the President’s views about the propriety of foreign governments intervening in our election process are the antithesis of what our framers committed to,” she said at one point in her testimony.
Karlan’s opening statement, however, received the most attention on social media, especially when she responded directly to the opening statement of Rep. Doug Collins, the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican.
Collins, himself a lawyer, suggested that the four constitutional scholars assembled by the Judiciary Committee would likely not have been able to read through Rep. Adam Schiff’s report on impeachment, or go through the testimony presented to Schiff’s Intelligence Committee.
Karlan disagreed.
“I read transcripts of every one of the witnesses who appeared in the live hearing,” she said. “I’m insulted by the suggestion that as a law professor I don’t care about those facts.”
A Star is Born. pic.twitter.com/X9EhDAN9aq— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) December 4, 2019
You can watch Collins’ remarks in the video below.
What’s shocking to me is Rep Doug Collins is a lawyer
Had he remembered even one thing from law school it would’ve been that you do not, You Do Not, insult law professors by labeling them ignorant of the facts or law at issue
Well done Prof Pamela Karlanpic.twitter.com/clmPEraxo8— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) December 4, 2019
Karlan was one of three Jewish constitutional scholars invited to testify Wednesday, alongside Noah Feldman of Harvard University and Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at feldman@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman