Updated at 3:30 p.m.
A large Nazi flag spotted and removed from a Morgan Hill overpass sparked a tense, brief exchange a week later between racial justice activists and pro-Trump demonstrators at the same location.
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office deputies removed the swastika flag from the Burnett Avenue overpass above US 101 on March 21 after it was seen hanging alongside American and Trump flags. Deputies who responded to the call began collecting evidence of a possible hate crime, according to senior communications officer Brooks Jarosz.
A person suspected of hanging the flag has been interviewed, Jarosz said, but no one has been arrested or charged with a crime. The case has been transferred to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office for review.
“These cases are complex and require careful consideration to distinguish between free speech and a targeted hate crime,” Jarosz said in an emailed statement to J.
Daniel Okonkwo, chief trial deputy and a hate crimes prosecutor with the district attorney’s office, confirmed that the incident is under investigation but declined to comment further.
A protest and counterprotest took place on Friday on the overpass, a spot frequented regularly by Trump supporters, with each camp accusing the other of hanging the swastika flag a week earlier. KTVU Fox reported on Friday night that both sides ultimately expressed their mutual disgust of the flag and conceded that neither side had been involved. The matter ended with a handshake.
The Morgan Hill Police Department is involved in the D.A.’s investigation, Mayor Mark Turner said in a statement posted on Facebook, where it received over 200 likes.
“While these actions are indeed unacceptable and hurtful, they do not define our town or the values we hold dear,” Turner said of the municipality just south of San Jose. “Morgan Hill has always been a community grounded in kindness, respect, and inclusion. We will continue to be defined by the countless positive actions of the majority who choose kindness over hate.”
Rabbi Faith Joy Dantowitz of Congregation Emeth in Morgan Hill has been in contact with the mayor since the flag was spotted. She told J. that although it was taken down the same day, it has had a lasting effect on the Morgan Hill community that’s been hard to shake.
“There were so many images that were shared of it. It wasn’t just being seen once. It was seen again and again,” Dantowitz said. “Even though the flag was taken down, we can still see it online, and it’s really jarring, really upsetting. Any flag with the Nazi symbol is unacceptable, and it represents an act of hate against the Jewish community and others.”
Adult education leaders at the Reform congregation had already been talking about offering an antisemitism education program to the Morgan Hill community through the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area’s “Here I Am” program, Dantowitz told J.
The program brings elected and civic leaders together with community members to “examine the various facets of Judaism, the history of antisemitism, how Jews express their identity, and the pervasive impact of antisemitism on contemporary life,” according to the JCRC. “Here I Am” sessions have been held throughout the Bay Area since 2021.
“Hopefully it will be something that will be well attended, so that more people can learn and there will be awareness,” Dantowitz said.
Hate crimes are defined in the California Penal Code as criminal acts motivated by the victim’s race or ethnicity, religion, nationality, gender or sexual orientation.
Similar displays of Nazi iconography have surfaced locally in recent years, though infrequently based on the Anti-Defamation League’s Hate, Extremism, Antisemitism, and Terrorism (HEAT) Map.
In the past five years, 12 incidents of antisemitism and white supremacist propaganda in Morgan Hill have been reported to the ADL’s HEAT map. Three of the incidents involved swastika vandalism of some kind, at synagogues and a high school.