DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Local United States Department of Veterans Affairs staffers were left horrified after a coworker put up a "Make Killing Great Again" poster on his office door.
It all played out earlier this month at a VA office building on Clairmont road in DeKalb County.
After a source inside the agency sent Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Aaron Diamant a picture of that disturbing poster Thursday night, he spent this afternoon working to find out what the agency is doing to ease workers fears and hold the staffer who put it up accountable.
"I'm afraid. I'm truly afraid," a VA staffer, who spotted the poster and asked not to be identified, told Diamant.
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The long-time VA employee, who asked not to be identified, told Diamant she's terrified every time she returns to work at the building that houses the Healthcare Eligibility Center.
The poster on a 3rd-floor office door contained an image of Secretary of Defense James Mattis and the words, "Make Killing Great Again."
"I thought that he would come in there any day and at any time and start shooting the office up," the employee said.
The chilling for some, politically-charged poster clearly plays off President Donald Trump's ubiquitous "Make America Great Again" slogan.
The worker told us the poster only came down after she alerted her union.
"You need to be sending him to a fitness of duty to see what his mindset is,” she said. “Something needs to be done.”
Diamant obtained internal VA emails confirming upper management knows about the poster and the employee who put it up, but so far the agency won't say if it took any further action.
"I really feel like if was black or if was from Middle East, they would have took him out of the building in handcuffs,” the worker said.
Longtime VA whistleblower Scott Davis works in the same building.
"No action was taken by any management official until I notified them the day after they were already notified by VA employees,” Scott told Diamant.
Davis says the staffer who put up the poster remains on the job.
"The appropriate action for VA is to at least put the employee on administrative leave until an investigation is completed," Davis said.
Meanwhile, the worker who wished to remain anonymous remains unnerved.
"To be told if you see something say something and you say something and nothing happens, and he's still allowed to come in the building and put all our lives at risk, then I have a problem with that," she said.
Late Friday afternoon, VA Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, James Hutton, sent Diamant a series of short emails saying, “VA is looking into this matter,” and “The poster has been taken down.”
Channel 2 is not naming the VA employee who put up that poster, because we have not been able to make contact with him.
We’ll remain in contact with Hutton and VA leaders and let you know whether the agency takes any further action.
Cox Media Group
