Man Flies Nazi Flag Because His Neighbor Hacked His WiFi

By Juliana Kaplan August 7, 2018

Updated 4:25 p.m.

A man in Preble, New York will not remove the Nazi flag flying in front of his home, saying that it is in response to a neighbor hacking his WiFi, Spectrum News reports.

Jody Fish told Spectrum News that “no one is doing anything” about the neighbor’s alleged hacking, so he raised the flag in an attempt to get the town’s attention.

An online petition urging the town to take action against the flag has almost 900 signatures. The author of the petition wrote that the flag “is guarded by what seems to be some sort of spike connected to [it].” The petition was created over a month ago.

Town supervisor Jim Doring told Spectrum News that the town cannot do anything about the flag, as it is on private property; however, the town does not agree with the decision to raise the flag.

But that explanation didn’t fly with the petition-writer, Shonei Schmoke.

“I don’t accept that there is nothing local representatives can do,” Schmoke told the Forward. “Nazis don’t deserve rights and there’s a massive difference between freedom of speech and hate speech.”

Fish said that, despite his refusal to remove the flag, he is not a Nazi supporter. Instead, he told Spectrum News, he’s a “victim.”

“No, no. Basically, I’m just trying to call attention to — I’m a victim. I would love to take it down, it’s been a nightmare. No. Definitely not, I’m quite the other way. I’m quite Christian,” Fish said.

Juliana Kaplan is a news intern at The Forward. Email her at kaplan@forward.com or follow her on Twitter, @julianamkaplan

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO