Ian Hans Lichtermann
Ian Hans Lichtermann is the Philadelphia cop being outed as a white supremacist. According to reports, hackers exposed photos of the bike patrol officer who can be seen with an apparent Nazi-style tattoo on his arm.
The images began circulating late on Wednesday and Lichtermann is being investigated as a result.
Mayor Kenney on Thursday condemned a photo of the Philadelphia police officer saying his tattoo was “incredibly offensive” and not the sort of message police should be giving the community.
39-year-old Ian Hans Lichtermann has a tattoo on his left forearm of an apparent spread-winged eagle resembling a symbol used by the Nazis, and above it the tattooed word “Fatherland.”
The Facebook user who posted the photo said it was taken at a protest march during the Democratic National Convention in late July.
Accoridng to Philly.com, city payroll records show, ‘an officer whose name is spelled Ian Lichterman joined the Police Department in April 2000 but left in August 2002. He returned in May 2003, records show, and his current salary as a police officer is about $72,000. It was not immediately clear why the records show a gap in his service or a name spelled differently from that on his uniform.’
Though for some, a tattoo might not mean much, other are considering the officer, as ‘an extreme danger to the people of Philadelphia’ a Facebook user wrote.
Since then, more photos of Lichtermann dressed in Nazi uniform also surfaced, showing the officer participating in a reenactment ceremony of sorts.
His past association with Blood and Honour, his Nazi-themed tattoos, his reenacting a Third Reich soldier and his reactionary, racist, anti-communist photoshops –make him not worthy of trust, others say.
Other sources say, Ian Hans Lichtermann was previously outed in 2010. He allegedly left the police force and went into private security. However, he is clearly back on the Philly police force. He belongs to the Northeast Philadelphia’s second precinct.
