San Diego deputies called after man spotted wearing swastika face mask in grocery store

The coronavirus pandemic and alt-right provocation collided in San Diego this week as sheriff's deputies responded to an individual in a local grocery store wearing a face mask adorned with a Nazi swastika. 

 A press release distributed on Friday by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department stated that on Thursday evening, deputies from the county's Santee station responded to a call from a Food 4 Less store. When they arrived, they encountered "a man wearing a mask with a swastika symbol on it."

"When deputies asked for the symbol to be removed, the man complied. Sheriff's Investigators will continue to look into the matter," the press release states. 

A video of the incident uploaded to the platform BitChute---a website known for its relatively hands-off approach to content regulation known for hosting far-right outlets such as InfoWars---depicts two individuals, one of whom is apparently pushing a baby in a stroller, shopping in the store. At one point a store clerk approaches the pair, telling the cameraman he "can't have a swastika on your mask" as it's "basically a hate crime." 

Deputies eventually show up and inform the couple that the store is allowed to set its own mask policy. "In a private store, they can make their own rules. They can enforce whatever they want," one deputy says. 

Reached via phone on Saturday, a spokesman for the sheriff's office said the deputies would not have arrested the man simply because he failed to remove the mask.  "I don’t think that they would have arrested him because it’s free speech. But I don’t know any of the circumstances of the incident," the spokesman said. 

In the video, one deputy says the shoppers may be arrested for trespassing if they fail to follow store policy, though that warning was not specifically tied to the Nazi symbol on the mask. 

On the video uploaded to BitChute, the cameraman wrote that he and his wife were "peacefully protesting all the crazy lockdown rules that have been and are continuing to be enforced here in San Diego, California."

"These crazy rules are destroying any quality of life we had left. Now we are unemployed and literally have nothing better to do and no where else we are allowed to be," he said. 

In its press release, the sheriff's department wrote that it "does not condone hate or acts of intolerance. We are a county that is welcoming of people from all backgrounds."