Couple wears face masks with Nazi swastikas in store, calls Governor Newsom a Nazi

Thousands of folks across America have taken to the streets in order to protest ongoing lockdowns due to the pandemic. They hope that registering their dissent against stay at home orders will open the country back up so they can go to work again. Some protestors, however, have been nasty and even anti-semitic when expressing their discontent. In a now-viral video, a couple is seen wearing face masks with Nazi swastikas glued onto them while shopping at a supermarket in Santee, California. The video has caused a stir online, where people are criticizing the shoppers for what many believe is a hate crime, The Daily Mail reports.

The 14-minute video, posted to BitChute by Dustin Hart, 32, features him and a woman shopping at the 9400 block of Cuyamaca Street branch of Food 4 Less in Santee. BitChute is a video platform used mostly by far right-wing ideologues and conspiracy theorists. Posting the video, Hart stated, "We 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 nowhere else we are allowed to be."

The couple walks around the store placing things in their shopping cart while several people take out their phones to snap pictures of them. At one point, a store cashier approaches the couple and tells them they cannot wear their masks inside the store. In most supermarkets, customers are urged to wear masks in order to help fight the spread of disease. However, most folks do not attach Nazi swastikas to their face masks. In response to the cashier, Hart simply says it is his First Amendment right to wear the mask which he can decorate however he likes. He adds, "This is America, land of the free."

The shop cashier even offers the shoppers a different set of masks, to which Hart replies, "Go for it." Soon enough, police officials are called in. As the couple continues to shop around the store, they spot deputies from the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. The deputies insist that Food 4 Less is a "private" and "family-friendly" store, cajoling the shoppers into taking their masks off. Hart informs them that he was planning to take his off while he paid for his items at the check-out counter. He declares, nonetheless, "We have a Nazi for a governor. Now you guys are here, literally proving my point."

The officer tries to explain the that mask was offensive. "I see the LGBT flag and that is offensive to me and I don't call the cops," Hart responds. "I would just like to go back to work. 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." Perhaps an empty mind is the devil's - or the Nazi's - playground after all. Though no arrests were made at the scene, Hart removed his mask while checking out. The Sheriff's Department affirmed in a later statement that it "does not condone hate or acts of intolerance." They stated, "We are a county that is welcoming of people from all backgrounds."