KKK hazing leads to supervised EMS

NEWARK, N.J., July 13 (UPI) -- Service supervisors have begun riding with emergency medical personnel in Newark, N.J., after a Ku Klux Klan-like hazing incident, officials say.

University Hospital EMS Director Nancy Hamstra said the supervised rides were a response to a series of released photographs showing paramedics taking part in a hazing ritual that resembled the actions of the racial supremacy group, The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger reported Saturday.

"It's a tough time for us," Hamstra said. "But we are an emergency service and are here to provide emergency service."

The photographs in question showed paramedics hazing two Northeastern University students by having them dress in white sheets while holding a cross. None of the individuals involved in the incident were black.

Officials at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which operates University Hospital and its EMS services, say the incident was a simple hazing incident and not a bias crime.

"This was more prank-like; hazing-like," university general counsel Lester Aron told the Star-Ledger. "It's horrendous, but it does not appear to be directed at anyone as a bias crime. It feels like a hazing. A sick hazing."