Jacksonville, FL – Hateful messages were displayed for hundreds, if not thousands, of drivers to see over the weekend.
A Neo-Nazi group filled the I-95 overpass near University Boulevard Sunday morning and unveiled Swastika flags and antisemitic banners on the morning of 9/11.
“If my kids saw it, I’d tell them I’m sorry they’re having to deal with the world the way it is,” said Savannah Miller while in the Englewood Elementary car line.
Miller frequently finds herself in the carline to pick up her child at Englewood Elementary.
Just a block away from the school, hateful, antisemitic messages were hung up on 9/11.
“We have enough hate in the world,” said Miller. “We don’t need anymore.”
Freedom of Speech is protected in the United States, but the executive director for the activist group StopAntisemitism, Liora Rez, says that protection can be a thin line.
“This type of harassment and targeting can insight violence,” said Rez. “This is when we have to have law enforcement step in.”
This is the third antisemitic event in Jacksonville this summer.
Homeowners in two neighborhoods on the Southside discovered flyers with hate speech thrown onto their driveways.
Gubernatorial Candidate Charlie Crist has called upon the FBI to investigate those incidents.
“We’re seeing these types of antisemitic incidents increase throughout the state,” said Rez. “This is a time when we need all legislators, including the governor as the leader of the state, to come forward and say, ‘No, this is not okay, and this will not be tolerated in Florida.'”
Miller is hoping she won’t have to see anything like that again when driving to and from her student’s elementary school.
“I just hope we can come together as a community, take that down and put something positive up,” said Miller.
