Philadelphia Police Will Investigate Officer’s Nazi-Style Tattoo
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Josh Nathan-Kazis September 2, 2016
The Philadelphia police department is looking into an image circulating on Twitter of an officer with what looks like a Nazi-style tattoo on his forearm.
In a statement posted on Facebook, police officials said that the image has been sent to the department’s internal affairs unit for review. The department has no policy on the display of tattoos by officers.
“The Department does not condone anything that can be interpreted as offensive, hateful or discriminatory in any form,” officials said in their statement. “This is a very sensitive topic for both the citizens that we serve as well as the officers providing service to the public.“
.@PPDCommish hi can you please explain why one of your officers, ian hans lichtermann, has a nazi tattoo on him? thx pic.twitter.com/CK9nAuiCGW
— mindy isser (@mindyisser) September 1, 2016
The photo, first posted to Twitter on Thursday morning, shows an officer in a bike helmet and shirtsleeves with the word “Fatherland” in gothic script across his left forearm. The top of angular black eagle is visible beneath the lettering.
An angular black eagle gripping a swastika is a Nazi symbol which the Anti-Defamation League describes in its hate symbols database as having been “appropriated by neo-Nazis and other white supremacists worldwide.” No swastika is visible on the officer’s arm.
Police union officials dismissed concerns about the officer’s tattoo in a statement to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“I’ve seen it. It’s an Eagle,” Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 president John McNesby told the Inquirer. “Not a big deal.”
The Inquirer reported that the photo was taken at a July protest during the Democratic National Convention.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
