The banner stated, “Hitler was right,” and displayed an image of the former Nazi leader.
By Josh Plank, World Israel News
Four men were arrested Saturday morning after hanging a “Hitler was right” banner on an overpass in Queen Creek, Arizona, just southeast of Phoenix, local NBC affiliate 12 News reported on Monday.
The banner stated, “Hitler was right,” and displayed an image of the former Nazi leader.
It also contained a website address which 12 News chose not to publicize due to the website’s “bigoted and explicitly racist pronouncements.”
Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the area after motorists reported the incident.
The officers discovered four men between the ages of 27 and 38 posing and taking photos with the banner, which they had hung on a railroad bridge over the street.
The men told police that they were exercising their first amendment rights.
Police charged the men with trespassing on railroad property, a class 3 misdemeanor, but said that they will not be pursuing the matter as a hate crime.
The sheriff’s office also forwarded the case to the Town of Queen Creek for possible zoning violations resulting from the hanging of a banner.
This is not the first time pro-Hitler messages have appeared on Queen Creek roadways.
In April of 2018, 12 News reported that an electronic highway sign was hacked to flash the message, “Hail Hitler.”
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene around 2:30 a.m. and tried to turn the sign off but did not have a password for the operation system.
A county work crew was called out to cover the sign until it could be reprogrammed.
On February 26, 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that a 20-year-old Queen Creek resident was among four men arrested in connection with a conspiracy to threaten and intimidate journalists and activists across three states.
Johnny Roman Garza stands accused of gluing a poster with a Nazi reference onto the home of an editor of a Phoenix-area Jewish publication.