This pamphlet was placed on several parking meters in downtown Grand Rapids last week.Update: Anti-Obama flyer with swastika evokes powerful reaction sought by 'fringe' element, experts say
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – A flyer recently placed on parking meters in downtown Grand Rapids pictures President Barack Obama next to a Nazi swastika, threatening that a “Holocaust is coming.”
“Obama is a puppet,” reads the handout that decries the Affordable Care and the National Defense Authorization acts. “Hitler’s Nazi Germany has been revived in the U.S. and the target is Americans.”
The pamphlet disturbed 59-year-old Vern Jones when the Georgetown Township man parked his car along Campau Avenue NW before a meeting last week. Jones went to feed the meter and the flyer blocked the coin slot of his timer as well as others nearby.
Jones took the card off of two others, believing it was inappropriate to force an audience to see the printed rant that pairs Obama with an atrocity like the Holocaust.
“I certainly respect the right to an opinion, but this is a sick opinion,” said Jones. “People have a right to say what they want, print what they want and hand it out, but that gives me a chance to say no. It has gone too far when it’s put on public meters and to a captive audience without a choice.
“I know conservatives don’t like (Obama), but with the swastikas, it’s just too much for me.”
The flyer spouts the idea that there are military checkpoints throughout the country and that it “is legal to assassinate Americans.”
“Obama’s health care bill is not a health care bill, instead it’s a total government takeover of every area of life (read the fine print) like gun confiscation, euthanasia and so on (euthanizing the poor, the elderly, the ill, those who’ve maxed out their health insurance and so on) there are no jobs and everyone will eventually be poor,” the card states.
Jones, a liberal who voted for Obama in 2008 but does not have a party affiliation and is uncertain if he'll support the president in November, says he’s stunned by the wording of the cards. He believes it represents fringe beliefs and perceptions.
“This is one of those things you look at and you’re just so disappointed that there’s this much anger and hatred out there,” Jones said. “It saddened me and it shows a poor level of understanding when you equate this with the Holocaust and Nazi Germany.
“It reflects ignorance from my perspective.”
The literature offers no clue on who authored and distributed it. The image of Obama on the front comes from the two-hour political documentary “The Obama Deception.” The film from Alex Jones claims Obama has been installed by powerful families to act against the interests of the people.
Readers of the card are referred to a website to sign a petition that espouses tea party ideas and urges people to support Ron Paul. The views there come from a woman who claims to live in Grand Rapids, but listings for a person by the same name were disconnected or answered by people who denied knowledge of the flyer and the petition.
It's not clear if last week's handout of the flyer was the first in the area. Grand Rapids police reported no complaints had been filed.
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