'Totally outrageous': Fury as swastika earrings sell out at Brooklyn jewellery store

dailymail.co.uk ^ | 12 Jan 2012 | Victoria Wellman

[smokingfrog]

A cheap jewellery shop in a Brooklyn, New York, neighbourhood has found itself at the centre of an impassioned controversy because of a pair of $5.99 earrings.

Bejeweled, an accessories retailer in the predominantly Polish neighbourhood north of Williamsburg, was caught selling studs in the shape of a swastika by a shocked customer.

According to the tipster, who recounted the discovery on Gothamist, the manager's justification for the offensive merchandise was simply, 'business.'

Though bloggers and reviewers on popular search engine, Yelp, damned the store for selling the earrings, some pointed out that on closer inspection the swastika was in fact backwards and therefore resembled the Buddhist emblem for 'eternity.'

Another manager of the Manhattan Avenue location who was contacted by New York Daily News said of the hype surrounding the case: 'These people are ignorant.

'They shouldn’t say anything if they don’t know anything about symbols. I find this offensive.'

[arrogantsob]

Come on, even here people freak out first and get the facts later.

[ansel12]

Here is the original patch for the 45th Infantry Division of the United States Army.

[Daaave]

I use swastikas to keep away the Rakshasa.
Better safe than sorry.

[AnalogReigns]

Whatever it’s orientation, whatever it’s pre-Nazi history, ....the fact that TENS OF MILLIONS WERE MURDERED under that symbol—in living memory—should cause us to give pause.

People are right to be upset at the owners of this store.

The “Hakencreutz” (German for Swastika, meaning “hooked cross”) has, and rightly should have, a permanent evil association to it—at least outside of the historic Indian or Navajo context.

[AnalogReigns]

spelling correction: "Hakenkreuz"

Here's a popular (if risky...since displaying a swastika/Hakenkreuz is still illegal there...) symbol in modern Germany:

[onona]

Zombie Apocalypse.......

[Disambiguator]

Charging handle latches.

[agere_contra]

Also: check out the swastika in the center of each of these 1917 Bolshevik banknotes.

Of course in these cases the swastika is the same swastika as that used by the Nazis - not a harmless Buddhist or Amerind symbol. The German National Socialists were a subset of the monstrous Left Wing Totalitarianism that engulfed much of the world in the 20th Century.