Masked men disrupt Hanukkah ceremony with Nazi flags, obscenities

[oberliner]

FAIRFIELD -- Pouring rain failed to dampen the spirts of a small group of families huddled on the Sherman Green gazebo to light a menorah on the third night of Hanukkah Sunday.

Neither did three masked men, who carrying Nazi flags and shouting obscenities, tried to disrupt the ceremony until they fled when police arrived.

"I'm glad I was there," said Fairfield First Selectman Kenneth Flatto.

So was Rabbi Shlame Landa who staged the ceremony for Chabad of Fairfield.

"It's important to see we don't back down from spreading goodness and light," said Landa.

The men, dressed in black, showed up just as the ceremony was beginning, stayed on the sidewalk about 20 yards from the gazebo. Each carried a flag held in outstretched arms. One flag bore a swastika, another an iron cross.

http://www.connpost.com/ci_13990267

[hobbit709]

1. I'm going to have my eyes checked

I first saw "naked" men disrupt Hanukkah ceremony.

[conscious evolution]

9. Same here

wth?!?!

[cali]

2. omg. this is despicable. And that it happened in Fairfield CT is

somewhat shocking to me.

[formercia]

5. Actually, it happening in Fairfield is not a surprise.

That part of CT is home to a lot of right-wing reactionaries and their wannabes. I grew up in Darien and witnessed it first-hand. My father was one of them.

[cali]

7. I grew up in New Canaan. My mother still lives there. I have sisters

who live in Darien, Ridgefield and Fairfield. I disagree with you. Fairfield County is filled with wealthy CEO types. It's hardly been a hotbed of neo nazis.

[nykym]

13. And just what is the

difference between a CEO and a skinhead besides money?

[cali]

14. that's just stupid.

the differences? Myriad. Many CEOs are simply greedy pigs. And those folks are in many ways worse than skinheads in that their actions negatively impact far more people, but no they aren't skinheads.

[deutsey]

16. In Germany, the difference was that the CEOs did business with the Nazis

It was quite profitable for them, from I understand.

[jonnyblitz]

6. have you heard of the CT White Wolves? they are a skinhead

group who became known by disrupting a GLBT gathering at a local Stratford, CT library a few years back. It's not Fairfield but still....

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=470

[Bluebear]

3. Masked? Like the KKK. Chickenshits.

At least own your bigotry, cowards!

[geckosfeet]

4. Ok. That's another piece of the American pie that makes me puke.

[KittyWampus]

8. Cowards wear masks. It means they know they are wrong.

[formercia]

17. It also hides their $40. haircuts.

My father used to brag about beating up "Commies."

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

10. Oh. My. God.

I don't even know what to say. I only hope that maybe they were teenagers pulling off a incredibly thoughtless and politically incorrect prank.

But even that explanation doesn't cut it.

[Mari333]

11. 'Aryan from Darien!'

lots of anti semites in that area.

[cali]

12. Maybe, but not a lot of neo nazis

it's simply not socially acceptable, and having grown up there (New Canaan) I can tell you that socially acceptable is more important than practically anything.

[formercia]

23. My sister went to Girl Scouts with Jackie Robinson's daughter

She told my sister that they had tried to buy a house in Darien and couldn't, for whatever reason, and there were many. They ended up living in Stamford.

There were only 24 'colored' residents in Darien in 1960 and they were all domestics.

[cali]

26. I went to school at New Canaan Country Day with David Robinson

and went to his house many times. And yes the Robinsons lived in North Stamford. Indeed, New Canaan and Darien were still quite "Gentleman's Agreement" in the early 60s. It does say something however that David went to one of the snottiest and most elite private day schools in the country. Anyway, that was nearly 50 years ago.

[formercia]

32. Small World n/t

[Odin2005]

15. Evil fuck!

[Renew Deal]

18. Sick f***ks

[joeybee12]

19. Wow! Masks! How brave!

What peiecs of shit.

[Renew Deal]

20. Here's a picture.

Funny that they're not willing to show their faces

[oberliner]

21. Shock, anger follow Nazi intrusion on Fairfield menorah lighting

After surviving Auschwitz and the Holocaust, the 82-year-old has lived in town 50 years, but what happened Sunday at a menorah-lighting ceremony on Sherman Green has left him, like many others, shocked.

"I was supposed to be there," Macy said. Bad weather delayed his arrival from a Hanukkah party in New York, so the ceremony was ending. He didn't see the three young men, dressed in black, wearing masks and holding Nazi flags who stood on the sidewalk as the menorah candles were lit. They left when police arrived.

"I was shocked into my bones," he said. "This was premeditated ... they were prepared. What bothers me is, who is behind them? I would have taken the masks off them myself, even if they stabbed me with a knife."

He wouldn't care, Macy said, if his action resulted in his own arrest. But Macy wasn't there. No one was arrested and it's quite possible no one ever will be.

"It does not appear that they did any damage to any property or compromised anyone's individual rights," Deputy Chief Gary MacNamara said. "Everybody has a right to share their opinion" no matter how offensive others might find it.

Hate crime statutes, police said, are very specific and come into play when someone tries to deprive another person of any constitutionally or legally protected rights. "These three individuals were simply standing on a sidewalk displaying their flags with masks on," Sgt. James Perez said.

http://www.connpost.com/ci_13995462?source=most_emailed

[jillan]

22. Why are people so evil? I just can't understand someone can actually spend their days making plans

to do something like this. It's the opposite of everything I believe in.

[guitar man]

24. sigh

will these teabagger protests never end? :(

[dembotoz]

25. if this was a mosque would our response be different?

I would hope it would not be

[cali]

27. There would be many more posts and more outrage if this had been

directed at Muslims.

[JonQ]

30. Pretty much

it would also then be part of a frightening trend of american hatred towards muslims, caused by the wars in iraq and afghanistan and due to exceptional american xenophobia.

[cali]

31. True enough, but the fact is that there are far, far more anti-semitic

bias crimes and acts like this than anti-Muslim ones.

[Number23]

28. Absolutely sickening. Why do people do things like this?

[Aristus]

29. The fact that the Hanukka celebrants didn't go all Hagana on their racist asses

is proof that people of tolerance, love and good faith are better, and that we will win. I wish I had been there to stand with the celebrants and their families.