For a second time in as many weeks, offended flea market shoppers called the government and demanded they do something about merchandise they found distasteful.
Raymond Smith was browsing the Golden Nugget Antique Market in West Amwell, New Jersey when he came across a couple historical Nazi items included in a World War II dealer’s array of authentic offerings.
“Mainly for me the idea of selling Nazi memorabilia out in the open like it’s a ‘Happy Days Board Game’ is offensive. We shouldn’t being seeing them in the sunshine on a Sunday afternoon,” Smith tells the Hunterdon County Democrat.
“There’s a certain type of mentality attracted to that presumed degree of power, and it’s unfortunate thinking… the swastika is symbol of power but it’s the wrong kind of power,” he says, comparing the memorabilia to the Confederate flag.
“These are very loaded symbols with very loaded history,” according to the shopper.
The man says he’s “displeased” that the items are allowed to be sold publicly, so he contacted numerous people to stop the vendor from selling the historical items, including administrators at West Amwell and Hopewell municipalities, as well as local synagogues and New Jersey’s U.S. senators.
“This is America, so there’s supposed to be a certain level of freedom just not out in the open like that at that flea market,” the “offended” shopper tells the paper.
“You could say the township is collecting money on the sale of Nazi memorabilia,” theorizing the government should therefore regulate what’s sold at the flea market.
“I’m someone that’s gonna take a stand on something when it’s not right,” Smith says.
A woman also “found it highly offensive” when the same vendor was selling a large red Nazi flag.
“You could see the swastika. She took real offense to it and said, ‘Could you take it down,’ so I said, No, I’m not taking it down because now you’re getting into freedom of speech and before you know it, there’s no rights left at all,” Smith says.
He suggested she buy the flag, take it home and burn it. She declined, preferring to just complain and negatively impact his business.
Last week, a shopper at the Redwood Country Flea Market in Wallingford, Connecticut was so “offended” by Confederate merchandise, he called 911.
“There was a table set up with this material,” Wright said. “It’s not criminally illegal, but obviously it offended this person. It causes some people a sense of being uncomfortable. Certainly the owner could preclude this merchandise.”
The town resident who called 911 said there were helmets with swastikas, images of Hitler and other historical Nazi items.
“I was shaking and almost vomiting,” he tells the paper. “I had to run. My grandmother had numbers,” referring to the digits the Nazis would tattoo on prisoners.
The caller complained that the Confederate items were “not authentic” and were replicas of flags and weapons.
Leave a Comment
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.