Alabama police let white man yelling Nazi slurs and flashing gun at coffee shop go citing ‘free speech’
The Southern Poverty Law Center reported this week that hate speech and crimes are on the rise around the country and can be directly linked to Donald Trump‘s vitriolic campaign and presidency.
Wednesday the SPLC, which tracks white supremacists and other extremist groups, announced that 2018 saw the fourth straight year of growth in the number of hate groups in the U.S.
And customers at an Auburn Alabama coffee shop learned that lesson first hand after a white supremacist walked in and started to terrorizing them.
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Sarah Barnett Gill, owner of Momma Mocha’s Coffee Emporium, detailed the terrifying experience in a Facebook post. Yahoo reports that a crazed man with a gun stood up on a chair and began to “yell nazi rhetoric” inside the shop on Tuesday.
The man was later identified as 21-year-old Zachary Taylor Hay, according to a store manager who said he got the name from police, according to The Plainsman.
“It was determined that the suspect was legally in possession of the weapon concealed on his person,” police said in a statement. “The incident did not occur in the presence of APD Officers; as such, any criminal charges would have to be filed by a complainant.”
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“His gun was registered, police said that he was within his right to free speech and did nothing wrong,” Gill said. “He was told he is banned from the store but was set free.”
Gill said she hires people of “ALL races, genders, sexualities, nationalities, religion,” and has no tolerance for hate.
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But Gill warned that racism is alive and well.
Just this week an Alabama press group censured the Democrat-Reporter’s editor after he called for the KKK to ‘ride again’ in D.C and terrorize Democrats.
Goodloe Sutton wrote a racist editorial rallying for the Ku Klux Klan to “clean out D.C.” and ride again against “Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats [who] are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama.”
The Alabama Press Association’s Board of Directors voted to censure Sutton, who is also the newspaper’s publisher and it suspended the paper’s membership, AL.com reports.
SPLC counted 784 hate groups in 2014, a figure that rose to 954 in 2017 and then 1,020 in 2018.
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