West Virginia Governor Jim Justice fired nearly 30 correctional officer trainees who posed for a class photo doing the Nazi salute on Monday (Dec. 30), following a state investigation into the picture.
“I condemn the photo of Basic Training Class 18 in the strongest possible terms,” Justice said in a statement. “This act needed to result in real consequences — terminations and dismissals. This kind of behavior will not be tolerated on my watch in any agency of State government.”
The photo shows the trainees making the gesture under a sign that reads, “Hail Byrd!” — a reference to their instructor Karrie Byrd, who told investigators that she was unaware of the “historical or racial implications of the gesture” and claimed that she thought it was “simply a greeting.” However, after interviewing over 50 people, the state’s Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety found that Byrd “encouraged it, reveled in it, and at times reciprocated the gesture” and “assured the cadets the behavior was acceptable,” even telling one employee that the salute came about “because I’m a hard-ass like Hitler.”
Two academy trainers and a cadet were fired when the photo was initially released on Dec. 5. A third staff member was fired Monday for failing to report the photo.
“We have a lot of good people in our Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety,” Lawrence Messina, a spokesman for the Division of Correction and Rehabilitation, told NPR. “But this incident was completely unacceptable. Now, we must continue to move forward and work diligently to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”
Subscribe here for our free daily newsletter.
Thanks for reading InsideHook. Sign up for our daily newsletter and be in the know.
