
Image Source: WGN-TV YouTube screenshot
The altercation happened at a Walgreens near Chicago
Police charged an Illinois man with a hate crime after he allegedly made a Nazi salute and shouted a white supremacist slogan at a family with black children.
The incident reportedly unfolded on Saturday in New Lenox, an unincorporated village southwest of Chicago.
Police said that a woman was leaving a Walgreens store with her three children, two of whom were black, when she was confronted by a man who was parked in the car next to hers.
They said that the man struck his chest, raised his arm in what appeared to be a Nazi salute and yelled, "white power" several times to the woman and her children.
The woman was able to take a photograph of the license plate of the man's car and called the police.
They identified Justyn Giarraputo the next day and after questioning him, presented their evidence to the Will County state's attorney's office. Giarraputo was arrested and charged with a felony hate crime and one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
Giarraputo was released from the Will County Adult Detention Facility on Saturday after posting a $5,000 bond.
A report from the Anti-Defamation League found that white supremacist propaganda had doubled in distribution from 2019 to 2020. They concluded that the election and the coronavirus pandemic had given fuel to white supremacist groups.
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