Washington– Two senators leading a bipartisan anti-Semitism task force said Friday they want more information from the U.S. Coast Guard on how to investigate Swastika and noose accidents Or other symbols of hatred displayed within its ranks.
The Coast Guard late Thursday issued a new, tougher policy addressing the display of such hate symbols, just hours after it was publicly revealed that the emerging policy would have softened the language to only describe it as “potentially divisive.” That sparked a quick protest from Sen. Jacky Rosen, Democrat of Nevada, and other lawmakers.
Rosen and Sen. James Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, sent a letter on Friday to Adm. Kevin Lunday, acting commandant of the Coast Guard, who released them. note late Thursday to clarify that “hate symbols and flags are prohibited.”
The senators, who said they spoke to Lunday on Thursday, called the new policy “a step in the right direction to affirm the Coast Guard’s commitment to maintaining a safe and inclusive environment for all of its members.”
However, the senators indicated they still had questions about how officers or supervisors would look into such incidents under the new policy. Specifically, they asked Lunday for more information about why his memo called for supervisors to “inquire” rather than conduct an investigation, as was the course of action under previous 2023 and 2019 policies.
“Any investigation involving conduct involving images historically associated with genocide, terrorism, and racial oppression must, at a minimum, be complete and transparent to ensure that the civil rights of those affected are protected and conducted in a way that victims feel safe to report these incidents,” they wrote.
“In addition, we would like to better understand the rationale behind why the investigative process is superior to the investigative process,” the senators wrote.
The previous version had described symbols like swastikas and nooses as “potentially divisive” and stopped short of banning them, instead saying leaders could take steps to remove them from public display and that the rule did not apply to private spaces, such as family residence.
This was a shift from a years-long policy that said such symbols were “broadly defined by oppression or hate” and called its display a “potential hate incident.”
Rosen spoke quickly about the shift Thursday and warned that “lax policies aimed at combating hate crimes not only send the wrong message to the men and women of our Coast Guard, but put their safety at risk.”
Lunday reached out to Rosen on Thursday and the two spoke later that evening, before he sent the new memo, according to a person familiar with the situation who was granted anonymity to discuss the private conversation.
In his late-night memo, Lunday wrote: “Placing divisive or hateful symbols and flags is prohibited.” He specified that these include “nooses, swastikas, and any symbols or flags chosen or adopted by hate groups.”