Virginia Officers Fired Over Ties To White Supremacist Groups

Two Virginia police officers have been fired over their ties to white supremacist groups.

In separate incidents, anti-fascist organizations revealed that Virginia Capitol Police Sgt. Robert A. Stamm and Daniel Morley, a school resource officer with the Chesterfield County Police Department, belonged to different hate groups.

Stamm, 36, was placed on administrative leave in February when a group called Antifascists of the Seven Hills published photos of him with tattoos, flags and other imagery linked to Asatru Folk Assembly, which the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as a white supremacist hate group .

Anti-fascist activists noticed Stamm was wearing a large bandage on his neck while monitoring a protest outside Gov. Ralph Northam’s mansion over the governor’s racist yearbook photo , according to The Washington Post . On Wednesday, the Post confirmed Stamm had been fired.

Morley, 31, lost his job over his ties to the white nationalist group Identity Evropa (also known as the American Identity Movement).

Chesterfield Police Chief Jeffrey Katz tweeted Thursday that the department had launched an investigation after reports came out in March about Morley’s side gig as an organizer for Identity Evropa, a group that helped coordinate the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

“The views espoused by and attributed to Mr. Morley violate county and departmental policy and our organizational values; his continued employment is antithetical to the expectations of our personnel and those we serve,” he said.

Anti-fascist activists  first identified Morley’s hate group ties by looking through hundreds of thousands of messages leaked by Unicorn Riot , an independent media organization. He was suspended from his job at L.C. Bird High School in Chesterfield County, and an investigation was launched.