Florida authorities have arrested a man after he allegedly hung extremist hate symbols including swastikas over a bridge.
On Wednesday, the Florida department of law enforcement (FDLE) announced that 48-year-old Jason Brown of Cape Canaveral was arrested for allegedly hanging swastikas and other antisemitic banners along the Daryl Carter Parkway overpass in Orlando and charged him with criminal mischief.
Authorities said there were three outstanding arrest warrants for additional suspects who live out of state and “whose actions were in violation of newly enacted state law”, which prohibits individuals from displaying or projecting images on to a building, structure or property without permission.
According to police, the suspects placed the banners along a fence in June without receiving written permission. The banners, which included various racist messages, hung directly over the I-4 highway, police said.
Authorities said Brown claims to be a member of the Order of the Black Sun, an antisemitic extremist hate group described by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as a small neo-Nazi network based primarily in Florida, which was formed earlier this year by longtime affiliates of the state’s overlapping white supremacist network.
“We want to thank Governor DeSantis for his support of law enforcement and for the signing of HB 269, giving us the tools to arrest this hate-filled radical,” the FDLE commissioner, Mark Glass, said in a statement. “This activity will not be tolerated in the greatest state in the country: Florida.”
Dave Kerner, the executive director of the state’s department of highway safety and motor vehicles, said: “Florida is a law-and-order state. Today’s arrest demonstrates Florida’s commitment to protecting residents from attention-seeking extremists.”
He added: “Thank you, Governor DeSantis, for working to rid this state of intimidation, vitriol and hate directed towards people of faith, and for empowering law enforcement to do the same.”
Earlier this month, a handful of neo-Nazis including supporters from the extremist hate groups Blood Tribe and the Goyim Defense League paraded through the Orlando area as they shouted racial slurs and waved flags depicting swastikas and other white supremacy symbols.
The ADL condemned the rallies. Its Florida regional director, Sarah Emmons, said: “We are deeply outraged by the two extremist demonstrations in the Orlando area. This type of hateful activity has no place in our community.
“We call on public officials at the federal, state and local levels to stand up and clearly denounce this hateful activity. We cannot allow for hate and extremist beliefs to become normalized in our society.”
The rallies earlier this month came just a week after a 21-year-old gunman left messages of hate before killing three Black people at a dollar store in Jacksonville, Florida, an incident which authorities said was racially motivated.
According to a report released by the ADL in March, antisemitic incidents have reached a record high in the United States, with the organization recording 3,697 antisemitic incidents throughout the country in 2022.
The number marks a 36% increase from the 2,717 incidents recorded in 2021 and is the highest number on record since the ADL started tracking antisemitic incidents in 1979.