Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins is calling for the federal government to abandon new workplace harassment policies at the Coast Guard.
Collins is making the demand after recent reporting indicates a new Coast Guard policy downgrades symbols such as swastikas and nooses from hate symbols to “potentially divisive.”
Collins is joining a chorus of Jewish groups that are condemning the policy change and insisting the symbols are anti-Semitic and racist.
A Homeland Security spokesperson called the reporting of the policy change, which appeared in the Washington Post, “pathetic” and “false.”
Collins sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem calling on the Coast Guard to immediately abandon the policy change.
“The symbols and images associated with Nazism are blatantly antisemitic and employed by criminals to express hatred toward Jewish individuals and racial minorities,” said Collins in a statement. “The U.S. Coast Guard should be adopting policies to assist with the quick and lawful removal of divisive symbols.”
A Homeland Security spokesperson told Newsweek the reporting in the Washington Post is a “pathetic attempt to smear the men and women of the Coast Guard by pushing a demonstrably false storyline.”
