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Shopper in Santee wears Swastika on face covering

The incident at the Santee Food 4 Less happened just days after a man wore a Ku Klux Klan hood to a Vons in the East County city

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A shopper wore a face covering adorned with a Swastika on Thursday at a Santee grocery store, just days after another man wore a Ku Klux Klan hood to a different grocery store in Santee, authorities said.

Sheriff’s deputies from the Santee substation were notified of the incident around 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Food 4 Less on Cuyamaca Street and River Park Drive, according to a statement from Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Ricardo Lopez.

“When deputies asked for the symbol to be removed, the man complied,” Lopez said in the news release.

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A Twitter user posted photos online showing a man pushing a shopping cart and wearing a surgical-style mask. Attached to the mask was the Swastika.

Another photo showed a sheriff’s deputy speaking to the man in the store. The photos were later deleted from Twitter.

“Sheriff’s investigators will continue to look into the matter,” according to Lopez’s statement. “The Sheriff’s Department does not condone hate or acts of intolerance. We are a county that is welcoming of people from all backgrounds.”

The man wore the Swastika into the store less than a week after another shopper last Saturday wore a Ku Klux Klan hood into the Vons in Santee.

Mayor John Minto expressed frustration in a phone interview Friday that in both incidents, “we’re giving them too much press.”

Minto said it would be better to “shut them down” than to give them more publicity.

Tammy Gillies, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in the San Diego area, said it was the job of the media, the ADL and others to call out hate.

“You have to shine a light on this type of hate,” Gillies said Friday over the phone. “Hate grows in the darkness when people don’t speak up.”

Gillies said that most concerning to her is the “seeming normalization of Swastikas and Nazi imagery used as a political weapon.”

At several recent protests around the country, people urging government leaders to “reopen” the economy have used Nazi imagery and slogans. They’ve included a woman in Illinois holding a sign with the same German phrase that was placed at the entrances to five Nazi concentration camps, and another woman in that state holding a sign with a Swastika that read “Heil, Pritzker,” referring to Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who is Jewish.

Protesters in Michigan on at least two occasions displayed signs comparing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to Adolf Hitler. Protesters in Sacramento did the same for Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“Absolutely nothing should ever be compared to Nazi Germany,” Gillies said. “It trivializes what happened during the Holocaust. It’s a real disservice to all who perished. Those who believe they’re using it as a weapon against Gov. Newsom, comparing him to a Nazi — nothing compares to that.”

Minto, the mayor, promised that “all people are absolutely welcome and can feel welcome” in Santee, a city of about 60,000.

“I want people to understand that this is a good community,” he said.

In a statement, a Food 4 Less spokeswoman said the company is “dedicated to providing a shopping experience that customers love.”

The statement continued: “In fulfilling this purpose we always live by our core values which include honesty, integrity, respect, diversity, safety and inclusion. The situation that occurred last night at our Santee location did not fall in line with those values, which is why the local sheriff’s department was asked to get involved.”

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who represents Santee and other communities in the East County, condemned the incident.

“Sad, vile acts like this must not be tolerated here or anywhere else,” Jacob tweeted Friday. “It’s deeply offensive to the community and our entire region. I want to commend those who alerted law enforcement and our Sheriff’s deputies for their fast response.”

Updates

10:56 p.m. May 8, 2020: This story was updated with a statement from Food 4 Less.

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