Officer Craig Eichhammer has admitted to putting up the since-removed picture as far back as 1999, framing it as a joke about a fellow officer and not an indication of his views.
The Berkshire NAACP has followed national racial justice group The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in sending a letter to Williamstown calling for Eichhammer’s immediate termination.
“We believe that there is a long standing culture of indifference, at the very least, and racism at its worst in within the department that both the select board and the town manager have chosen to ignore, as well as past police chiefs," said co-chair of the chapter’s race relations committee, Joel Priest. "We see the posting by Eichhammer of the poster of Hitler in his station locker for 20 years as something that is the tip of the iceberg of a pattern of racist behavior amongst the department.”
Interim Town Manager Charlie Blanchard said he will not fire Eichhammer over the picture.
