(Charleston Post and Courier) A Berkeley County Council member said he wasn’t trying to offend anyone by dressing up like a Middle Eastern man and then posting a picture on social media, saying the robed costume was part of a paid acting job for a tactical training exercise.
The Facebook post solicited outrage on social media and questions from the public before being made private.
Six-year Councilman Tommy Newell posted the photo of himself wearing a traditional Middle Eastern keffiyeh headscarf and tunic and explaining he was “playing the part of a terrorist” for an organization’s military-style training.
Next to him were four other people in foreign dress, one wearing a keffiyeh, one wearing a niqab (face veil) and cloak, one wearing a kufi skullcap and one dressed in all gray military fatigues and holding an enlarged cutout of a handgun.
