Moment a 17-year-old boy is kicked out of a mall in Brazil for wearing a swastika armband
- A 17-year-old boy was removed from a mall in Pernambuco, Brazil, on Thursday after he was spotted wearing a swastika armband
- The teen was approached by security and told the guards that it was his ‘freedom’ to wear the Nazi armband before he was kicked out of the mall
- The use of Nazi symbols is considered a racial and prejudice crime in Brazil, and is punishable by up to three years in prison
A 17-year-old boy wearing a swastika armband was kicked out of a mall in Brazil Thursday after customers alerted mall security officers.
The teenager had the armband wrapped around the sleeve of a hooded sweatshirt as he walked around the shopping center in Caruaru, Pernambuco.
One of the security guards approached the teen and was captured on video reprimanding him for wearing the Nazi armband.
‘This one wants to be famous,’ the man said. ‘You don’t even know what you are wearing there.’
The teen is then grabbed by the arm in an attempt to toss him out of the mall before he quips, ‘I’m in my freedom.’
He subsequently walks away from the guard and picks up his face mask from the floor.
A security guard grabs a 17-year-old boy by the arm before kicking him out of a mall in Brazil on Thursday after customers alerted guards that the teen was wearing a swastika armband. According to Brazilian law, any person can be sentence between one to three years and fined if they are found guilty of manufacturing, marketing, distributing or broadcasting ‘symbols, emblems, ornaments, badges or advertising that use the swastika or swastika, for the purposes of dissemination of Nazism’
The teen defended the use of a swastika armband by telling mall security that he was free to do so. The use of Nazi symbols is considered a racial and prejudice crime in Brazil
The mall did not report the incident to police, but said in a statement that it rejects ‘any and all forms of justification for the Nazi movement.’
The use of Nazi symbols is considered a racial and prejudice crime in Brazil.
Brazilian law states that a person can be sentenced to between one to three years and fined if they are found guilty of manufacturing, marketing, distributing or broadcasting ‘symbols, emblems, ornaments, badges or advertising that use the swastika or swastika, for the purposes of dissemination of Nazism.’
However, Ricardo Santa Ritta, secretary of tourism for the city of Maceió in the northeastern state of Alagoas, went on Twitter to defend the teenager’s use of the swastika armband, alleging that his ‘freedom of expression’ was being violated.
‘Today I discovered that using any element with the ‘swastika’ is a federal crime in Brazil,’ he wrote. ‘I thought freedom of expression is allowed.’
The Brazilian mall did not report the incident to the local police, but said in a statement that it rejects ‘any and all forms of justification for the Nazi movement
Ricardo Santa Ritta, secretary of tourism for the city of Maceió in northeastern state of Alagoas, went on Twitter to defend the teenager’s use of the swastika armband, alleging that his ‘freedom of expression’ was being violated. But he then reversed course and blamed his comments on not being familiar with the Brazilian judicial system. On Friday, the Democratic Labour Party announced it would hold a meeting to revoke his political membership
Moments later Santa Ritta reversed himself, blaming his initial statement on his lack of knowledge of the Brazilian judicial system.
‘Today I learned that wearing a swastika symbol is a federal crime. I honestly didn’t know,’ he tweeted. ‘The previous post was my personal opinion. I found the discussion on freedom of expression interesting as a result of this.’
His mea culpa drew backlash from members of the Democratic Labour Party, which sought to dissociate itself from Santa Ritta and announced Friday that it would start the process to remove him from the party.
’80 years have passed since the perpetuation of the selective murders of six million people, under the Nazi symbol,’ Democratic Labour Party said in a statement. ‘We are in 2021 and we cannot allow or condone anyone who claims the right to express my support for Nazism, especially a public figure.’
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