CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice repeated his condemnation of a photo showing more than 30 state corrections trainees making a salute associated with Nazis.
“It’s shameful,” Justice said.
The governor first issued a statement of condemnation on Thursday when the photo first came to light.
During a Friday afternoon press conference that dealt with several state government issues, he again said the photographed gesture is unacceptable.
“It’s a disgraceful thing, and it’s an act of stupidity in many different ways,” Justice said.
State officials said two instructors and one class member have been fired already over the photo. More than 30 others have been suspended, likely moving toward firing.
That’s because of their participation in a group photo that drew widespread, strong disapproval when it was released Thursday to the public.
Participants in the Division of Corrections training class are pictured in uniform, raising their outstretched arms in salute. The photo includes the West Virginia state seal.
Above the photo is the label “HAIL BYRD,” which state officials have said refers to a class instructor whose last name is Byrd.
State officials released a pdf of the photo on Thursday with the faces blurred.
“My first reaction was just simply this: We’re a proud state, and we’ve got a diversification of a lot of different people from within our state,” Justice said at the press conference.
“This is intolerable to every single, living, breathing human being in this state.”
State officials said the group photo marked the end of the training class for workers who were to be assigned to correctional facilities around West Virginia.
The class includes training on issues such as how to recognize white supremacy and its symbols, Public Safety Secretary Jeff Sandy said.
The class term ended the day before Thanksgiving, which was the same day state officials described finding out about the photo.
Since then, an investigation involving more than 50 interviews has been underway, Sandy said. The final interview finished at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sandy said.
The resulting documentation and conclusions will be presented to the governor’s in-house legal team and then, probably, to the public.
“The net of everything has to be dismissals, terminations, and we’re moving through the process as expediently as we can,” Justice said.
Reporters asked both Justice and Sandy when an unaltered version of the original photo would be released to the public and when those involved would be named.
Sandy said public information is going through legal review — and expressed concern that some in the photo have been threatened.
“We are concerned about threats to the individuals from other groups,” Sandy said.
Justice said he, personally, would like to open up all the information but deferred to the lawyers.
“These people deserve to be exposed. They do,” he said. “I don’t know that I can legally do that.”
Justice, who often talks about the importance of viewing the state optimistically, said this incident needs to be treated without blinders.
“I don’t want you to move on past it because it’s that important,” he said. “It’s so unacceptable; it should be condemned to the highest degree.”
He later added, “”The facts are the facts. I’m not standing there with my arm up. If somebody is willing to do that, they need to be willing to suffer the consequences.”