Hurricane Florence is doing quite a number on the Carolinas at present. North Carolina is basically under water, and CNN is calling Florence the "Storm Of A Lifetime." To add insult to injury, one member of the Coast Guard decided to flash a hand signal that left many feeling more uneasy than they already did during a Florence broadcast.
The gesture in question once symbolized "Ok" but has now come to be an identifying move of white supremacists. Watch below:
You can clearly see he looks at the camera first before deliberately flashing the signal and not-so-subtly moving the hand under his chin.
"We are aware of the offensive video on twitter," said the Coast Guard in a statement. "His actions do not reflect those of the United States Coast Guard."
Twitter noticed and called it out immediately.
The Coast Guard swiftly removed the man from the response team, referring to the incident as "a frustrating distraction for the Coast Guard during our hurricane response."
This person has been removed from the response pending an investigation. These types of actions are not reflective of the core values of the Coast Guard.
These types of reports are frightening for swaths of the population--it seems like the stuff historians will point to in the future when they trace the rise of white nationalism in the United States.
The Coast Guard has not released any further statements on the fate of this man at this time. However, this is unsettling, and we applaud the CG for immediately taking action.
H/T: CNN, Buzzfeed News
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