Outrage Over Newark Hospital's "KKK Hazing"

On Friday, three paramedics were fired from Newark's University Hospital for making student interns wear KKK-like robes. Apparently paramedics had seen a racist parody video and then decided to re-enact it. The president of University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ, which operates the hospital, William F. Owen said, "You can't make this stuff up. It's like being in Tennessee in the 1950s." The Star-Ledger reported emergency service supervisors rode with ambulance crews yesterday "in response to growing community anger" (Newarks contracts emergency services from the hospital). EMS director Nancy Hamstra said, "We have an important job and people rely on us. Two hundred and fifty times a day, people call us, and each is an opportunity for us to prove our professionalism."