West Virginia prison employees are suspended after guard trainees are photographed doing Nazi salutes in their official group photo
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Corrections officials were suspended amid an investigation into a photo taken of a trainee class giving a Nazi salute
The image includes the words, 'Hail BYRD', a reference to the group's training instructor and all faces of those pictured are blurred
Jeff S. Sandy, the cabinet secretary for the state's Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, which released the photo, has condemned the image
Several employees have been suspended and Division of Corrections Commissioner Betsy Jividen has ordered all copies of the photo be destroyed
Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety Director Jeff Sandy sent a letter to all employees condemning the image, while Governor Jim Justice called for all who were involved to be fired.
Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety Director Jeff Sandy sent a letter to all employees condemning the image
An investigation is now underway, state officials said.
The state released the image after a public records request was made, reports the Charleston Gazette-Mail .
'It is distasteful, hurtful, disturbing, highly insensitive, and completely inappropriate', Sandy wrote in the letter sent to employees.
'It undermines the high standards that have been set for our Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It betrays the professionalism I have seen time and time again displayed and practiced by our brave correctional employees'.
The image comes after the department has faced heightened legal and public scrutiny, reports the Gazette-Mail.
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I know some will ask what's the big deal, they are just having fun.
Besides their "hail" chant may be referencing Caesar, right?
I'll submit that they were referring to this BYRD:
Nope, it was their training instructor.
Now don't you feel silly. Guess you didn't read the article....again
This is not the WV I grew up in. I hate to see how it's changed.
So you were around when your very own KKK Grand Wizard represented West Virginia in the US Senate?
XDM , your comments about Sen Byrd are off topic. The article specifically states it refers to their instructor.
Any more Sen Byrds will be removed.
By the time I was born, Robert Byrd had left and renounced the KKK.
Some people change for the better.
And some people (and places) change for the worse.
And yet YOU mention Caesar. Can you spell H Y P O C R I T E ?
Quit while you are behind.
Dear Friend Sandy: This is by no means a representative sample of anything.
It is just a set of personal experiences I had in 1956-57 in St. Albans, West VA.
One of my friends when we were undergraduates in Lexington, KY invited me to his home outside of Charleston South Charleston West Virginia on spring break vacation.
His parents and younger brother were fantastic hosts.
His Dad, his brother Pat (my friend) and I used to play basketball in their driveway before we had a home made lunch his Mom made for us.
Shooting hoops is what guys do.
Creating food fit for a King is what his Mom did so well.
Pat and I double dated at the Civic Center in Charleston with his High School girl friend who stayed local, and her best friend.
We went to rock and Roll Concerts.
Pat and I also attended regional High School basketball games at the school from which he graduated.
Most people with whom I interacted didn't notice or care that I am a practicing Torah True Jewish person.
Some had tons of questions, because they correctly construed that they could become better at practicing Christianity if they knew more about their spiritual roots.
Some kept their distance.
There were a very tiny group who felt the need to mouth off.
West Virginia served "near beer" (a lower alcohol, much lower taste version of the brewers art).
One afternoon Pat and I met with some of the class mates of his who stayed local, or came home on vacation from where they attended college.
Most at the tavern ("near bar") kept to themselves.
A few of the less sober and more deranged came over to our table to start trouble.
To their credit, when I took on three of the trouble makers they joined in the fray as a donnybrook ensued.
When the local constabulary arrived it was drunken bigots 0 and us guys who just came to suck suds and play the juke box 15.
As the bar keep told them the narrative, the police placed under arrest the fight starters.
Before they left they told the bar tender to serve us a round, and bill the local precinct.
In other words, like every where else I have gone in my this life travels, some are nice, others dirt; and most just trying to keep their heads above water.
West (By G-d) Virginia.
Good place, good people (mostly) good times.
Enoch (Too old even for "near beer").
I'm glad you had a good experience, there, Enoch. I've been to that Civic Center many times. There's a mall across the street from it that wasn't there in the 50s, and it used to be one of the best shopping malls I've ever visited in any state. A school field trip to the Civic Center always included a side trip to the mall for lunch, even though most of us were there pretty often anyway, as my county had little in the way of shopping.
I had a wonderful experience growing up in WV. Maybe I just didn't frequently encounter racism or religious bigotry because I'm white and (then) was Christian, and therefore unaffected, but I really saw very little of it.
Unfortunately, I've seen more in recent years. Maybe social media makes more visible that which was always there.
I agree that most people are not like this. But there are always those few bad apples.
Dear Friend Sandy:
We enjoy the good one.
Try best to be there for the not so virtuous when they are ready to change.
Sustainable progress comes from inside out, not the other way around.
If they want and need me, I will be there for them.
P&AB.
Enoch.
FWIW, I don't think all copies of the photo should be destroyed, and I don't think their faces should be blurred. This photo is a character reference. They were proud enough of their bigotry at the time, so they shouldn't be ashamed to have their faces associated with bigotry now. If a future employer (because they damned well better be fired from this job) should happen to see it, so much the better.
I totally agree with you Sandy. Let this ugliness come out from hiding.
I was wondering why they blurred them all out. It would seem to be public record.
I think one could make an argument that it was all for fun and to pay tribute to their instructor, either sincerely or mockingly (maybe the instructor acted like a dictator).
But that argument should be rejected. In our society the raised arm "salute" is associated with Nazism and the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis on millions of innocent people.
You nailed this one John.
There was a story from earlier in the week, that wasn't covered by our "left wing media" but the British and Israeli papers picked up. I was going to share it, but it was political in nature and I didn't want to get into that. But this kind of ugliness is coming out from the dark once again because it feels safe to do so. Let me share.
To see the video go here:
full video here:
I saw that article earlier this week. It's disgraceful Trump gave this insane person a White House press credential, but what else is new? He gave a press credential to Gateway Pundit, one of the most disgraced sites on the internet.
How is it any adult thinks this is ok?
Believe it or not, there are people defending this in the comments section on WV tv stations' Facebook pages. "Innocent until proven guilty" - apparently, some folks don't know that applies to criminal trials. "They saluted that way before Hitler". Yeah, not anymore, thanks to Hitler, just like the swastika used to not represent fascism, but does now, thanks to Hitler.
Well said.
Thank you.
I can respect innocent until proven guilty. At least that isn't a defense of the action. But you'd have to show it was photoshopped or they were doing it to make fun of nazis or something. I don't anticipate that being the case, though.
He also ruined a perfectly good mustache style and a first name.
Can't agree about the mustache style. He didn't ruin it. It was already bad.
Chaplain created The Little Tramp in 1915. Hitler began his rise in power in 1919. I guess Hitler liked the look of it.
The Nazis are here. America will have to deal with it.
And Trump supporters love it.