Freedom of Speech or Hate? Swastikas Display Causes Uproar in California

The homeowner is displaying swastikas on American and Israeli flags, replacing the stars with the symbol used by Nazis in WWII. The display includes a Palestinian flag and a wood statue of a figure with the arms raised and wearing army fatigues.

The display has upset some neighbors and has caught the attention of local police and other officials.

Democratic Senator Marty Block and other community leaders are calling on the homeowner to take down the display.

Area Jewish groups also want the display taken down.

“There is no more potent a symbol of hatred than the swastika,” said Barry Broad of the Jewish Federation of Sacramento. “It is a symbol of murder and genocide and tremendous sacrifice to eradicate Nazism from this planet,” Broad told KCRA-TV in Fresno.

The homeowner told a reporter that he will not take out his display, calling it “art” and that he had the freedom to put it up on his own property.

An informal poll by KCRA-TV found that while a third of respondents think it’s offensive and the homeowner should be forced to remove the swastika display, more than half were opposed, saying it was a matter of free speech.