twitter.com/idaroseflorez Image by Twitter

(JTA) — A shopper at a suburban San Diego supermarket was asked to remove a face mask decorated with a swastika.

It’s another incident of stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus crisis being conflated with Nazi Germany.

.@kroger Looks like you have the opportunity to respond better @Vons to a customer signaling hatred in your #Santee Food4Less store. Our community is outraged. Are you? pic.twitter.com/eOW7wwWrxf

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

— Ida Rose Florez, PhD (@idaroseflorez) May 9, 2020

The man, identified by the Times of San Diego as Dustin Hart, wore the mask in the Food 4 Less market in Santee. The incident on Thursday came days after another man was seen wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood as a face covering in another supermarket in the community.

“It was 100 percent intended to be a peaceful protest,” Hart told NBC San Diego. “The only Nazi thing was trying to say is the governor is acting like one up on his podium gloating his power the only and taunting his power.”

But the Times reported that Hart posted a 14-minute video in part showing his confrontation with two sheriff’s deputies inside the store to BitChute, a service that the Southern Poverty Law Center says hosts “hate-fueled material.” Hart says in the video that “We have a Nazi for a governor. Now you guys are here, literally proving my point.”

“I would just like to go back to work,” Hart told the deputies. “All I get to do is sit home and fester. I want to get out of my house and go to work and be productive.”

Hart was not arrested by the deputies.

“When deputies asked for the symbol to be removed, the man complied,” according to a statement from the Sheriff’s Department, which added that investigators will continue to look into the matter.

The post San Diego-area shopper asked to remove face mask decorated with Nazi swastika appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

$36 $500

$120 $180 Other amount