Area Legislators Liken COVID-19 Screening Process To Nazis Labeling Jews

Representative Ben Carpenter of Nikiski defended asking whether stickers that individuals may be asked to wear as part of a Capitol COVID-19 screening process will be “available as a yellow Star of David.”  He later said he was serious in making the comment in an e-mail chain with other legislators. Representative Sarah Vance of Homer defended Carpenter’s intent.

He was responding to proposed protocols aimed at guarding against the virus as lawmakers prepare to reconvene Monday. The protocols suggest stickers be worn to confirm someone at the Capitol had been screened.  In an e-mail chain, Carpenter asked about the screening process: “If my sticker falls off, do I get a new one or do I get public shaming too? Are the stickers available as a yellow Star of David?”

Representative Carpenter: “The point is, tying it to the Star of David shows, who among the human population has lost their liberties more than the Jewish people? And if there were more people standing up for the loss of liberties prior to World War II, maybe we wouldn’t have had the Holocaust. This is about the loss of liberties within our people, and we’re just turning a blind eye to it.”

He added: “Can you or I — can we even say it is totally out of the realm of possibility that COVID-19 patients will be rounded up and taken somewhere? People want to say Hitler was a white supremacist. No. He was fearful of the Jewish nation, and that drove him into some unfathomable atrocities.”

Representative Grier Hopkins of Fairbanks responded to Carpenter’s e-mail: “That’s not what led to the Holocaust. There was no Jewish nation at that time. It didn’t exist. And using that term is anti-Semitic and a misunderstanding of history. If he wants to have a conversation about constitutional rights, that’s a discussion we can have, but likening it to genocide is completely erroneous and wrong.”