Report: KY training video with Nazi symbol was lifted from white supremacist site
A Kentucky law enforcement training video that included a controversial Nazi symbol — a black sun wheel known as a “sonnenrad” — was lifted from an online white supremacist source that makes “derogatory references to ‘Jews’” and subsequently presented during training classes as documented fact, according to a state investigation.
The instructor responsible for the training video “did not take any steps to determine the identity of ‘Renegade Films’ or the veracity of the information presented during the six-minute ‘history’ video clip,” Inspector General Maryellen Mynear wrote in her report for the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet.
Gov. Andy Beshear publicly denounced the training video as “offensive and absolutely unacceptable” last November after its existence was disclosed by the Manual RedEye, the student newspaper at DuPont Manual High School in Louisville. It followed the disclosure of Kentucky State Police training materials that included quotes from Adolf Hitler and Robert E. Lee and instructed officers to be “ruthless killers.”
State employees at the Kentucky Department of Criminal Justice Training did not intend to include a Nazi symbol in their course material last year and did not understand what the symbol meant, Mynear wrote in her Feb. 22 report.
The Herald-Leader obtained Mynear’s report through the Kentucky Open Records Act.
The problem, Mynear wrote, is that training instructor Jeromy “Chad” Burkhart simply lifted six minutes of video from YouTube while he was preparing an online lesson for 911 dispatchers and other emergency workers taking a class about the drug epidemic.
The 33-minute video from which Burkhart took a slice was called “America’s Manufactured Opioid Crisis: Hidden History of the Heroin Pushers.” It was produced by Renegade Films, a company associated with racist, anti-Semitic and other prejudiced videos. It’s the Renegade Films logo at the start of the video that includes the sonnenrad.
Other than the sonnenrad, nothing in the short section of the Renegade Films video that Burkhart lifted seems offensive, Mynear wrote. This part discusses the 1908 Opium Exclusion Act and the 1914 Harrison Tax Act, among other early government regulations of drugs.
However, moments after that six-minute segment ends, the video suddenly begins to denounce “Jewish gangsters,” an anti-Semitic theme that continues for much of the rest of the half-hour.
“While some old-school Italian mafiosos may have had some objections to selling heroin, Jewish gangsters did not,” a female narrator says in the Renegade Films video. “Jews at the time dominated the drug business in New York.”
Burkhart told the inspector general’s office that he decided to end the segment that he would use for his state training video just before the narrator began complaining about Jews, Mynear wrote.
“He did not believe it was ‘relevant’ — yet he did not recognize the disparaging nature of this commentary. Even when questioned further on the use of ‘Jewish gangs,’ Burkhart did not recognize an issue with this stereotypical language,” Mynear wrote.
The Department of Criminal Justice Training “took swift action” in response to the training video by requiring its instructors to complete four hours of education on developing more appropriate, relevant and professional training materials while also recognizing potentially offensive content, said Morgan Hall, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet.
Also, the department contacted the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Anti-Defamation League to schedule virtual training for a course called “Law Enforcement and Society: Lessons of the Holocaust,” Hall said. This will “provide an opportunity to reflect upon their roles, responsibilities and challenges of policing in a democratic society,” Hall said.
Hall did not respond to questions about any possible punishment for Burkhart or others at the department.
Burkhart, who makes $44,789 a year, joined the Department of Criminal Justice Training in Richmond in late 2019. Previously, he worked as a 911 communications officer in Clark County.
In a brief phone interview on Tuesday, Burkhart declined to comment.
Burkhart “was upset to realize the significance of the black sun after its inclusion in the training materials,” Mynear wrote. However, he failed to verify the legitimacy of the source material he was using or ask for permission to use a private company’s video in the training materials he was preparing, she wrote.
“Upon his DOCJT employment, Burkhart completed a 40-hour training course required for his training instructor position. He opined that it needed to be longer and should include more detail on how to locate and research the validity of resources,” Mynear wrote.
Nearly a dozen people at the Department of Criminal Justice Training reviewed Burkhart’s training video, including his immediate supervisor, Duane Bowling, but apparently none of them watched the full 33-minute Renegade Films video or otherwise investigated Burkhart’s source material, Mynear wrote.
“Bowling admitted he knew from the lesson plan that this video was found on YouTube, and he did not ask whether, or how, Burkhart verified the accuracy of the information or the source,” Mynear wrote.
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 3:06 PM.
