Shopper Spotted Wearing KKK Hood After Mask Mandate Issued In California Amid COVID-19 Pandemic

May 5, 2020

Man wears KKK hood while shopping at suburban San Diego store

*A man shopping at a Vons store in Santee, San Diego has gone viral for wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood at the supermarket.

The photos emerged on social media over the weekend, a day after a mask mandate was put in place, requiring all residents to wear a face covering in public whenever they enter a place of business to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, wokv.com reports.

Photos of the klan man were posted on Facebook by shopper Tiam Tellez and were also shared on Twitter by Tammy Gillies, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League in San Diego.

“Don’t know which angers me more—the person wearing this or the fact that no one in management @Vons Santee did anything about it.,” Gillies tweeted while sharing pictures of the man in the hood. “@ADL_SD⁩ would be happy to educate your team. San Diego is #NoPlaceForHate.”

San Diego County Supervisor Dianne Jacob added: “The images I’ve seen are abhorrent. This blatant racism has no place in Santee or any part of San Diego County. It is not who we are. It is not what we stand for and can’t be tolerated.”

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When others at the store confronted him over the mask, he refused to take it off until he paid for his items at the checkout, per Newsweek.

John Minto, the mayor of Santee, said in a statement that the shopper’s attire was “a symbol of hatred.”

“The citizens and Vons employees took steps to address the situation. Many thanks to all who stepped forward to curtail this sad reminder of intolerance,” Minto wrote. “Santee, its leaders, and I will not tolerate such behavior. Santee and its citizens are great, and this particular individual’s actions are not representative of us as a people and a wonderful city.”

“The images I’ve seen are abhorrent,” County Supervisor Diane Jacobs said in a statement. “This blatant racism has no place in Santee or any part of San Diego County. It is not who we are. It is not what we stand for and can’t be tolerated.”

It’s worth noting that the city of Santee has a legacy of racially motivated attacks and skinhead activity, which led to the nicknames “Klantee” and “Santucky.”

The San Diego Sheriff’s Department has reportedly launched criminal probe on the Santee man wearing the KKK mask inside the Vons store (see Instagram post below).

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The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department has launched a criminal probe into an incident at a Vons store in Santee last weekend involving a shopper wearing a Ku Klux Klan mask as a form of facial covering.⁣ ⁣ “Detectives from the Sheriff’s Department are looking into the matter and will pursue any appropriate criminal charges,” a Sheriff’s Department press release read on Monday. “The Sheriff’s Department does not condone hate or any acts of intolerance in our communities.”⁣ ⁣ The incident, which went viral over the weekend, caused local and national outrage as people rushed to comment on the blatantly racist sight and its implications in regards to Santee’s history and reputation. Though news of racism in the East County town was not of particular shock to many, the severity of its overtness left many severely appalled.⁣ ⁣ “I was in disbelief,” the person who took the photo described to the Times of San Diego. “He was behind me in line. Standing quietly. A man in a wheelchair [went] past and saluted him and he laughed. I took the photo because I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing. I’ve grown up in Santee and have never seen such racism right before my eyes.”

A post shared by The Travelers Club (@thetravelersclub) on May 4, 2020 at 2:07pm PDT