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So now texting the swastika is illegal? 14yr old gets arrested for texting it.
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Original Message
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OAK PARK, Ill. – A student at Oak Park River Forest high school has been charged after several other students were sent an image of a swastika on their phones.
Police said a 14-year-old was charged with dissemination of an obscene message.
[link to wgntv.com (secure)]
I find it disgusting that this child was arrested and tried for any crime. An image of a symbol is not obscene. Let alone a historic symbol.
Let's take a look at what the actual Ill. law says;
135/1. Transmission of obscene messages prohibited
Any person in this State who sends messages or uses language or terms which are obscene, lewd or immoral with the intent to offend by means of or while using a telephone or telegraph facilities, equipment or wires of any person, firm or corporation engaged in the transmission of news or messages between states or within the State of Illinois is guilty of a Class B misdemeanor. The use of language or terms which are obscene, lewd or immoral is prima facie evidence of the intent to offend.
[link to www.womenslaw.org (secure)]
Clearly this law was designed for sex crimes not for images of symbols. The law is being applied distortedly to go after this child and threaten anyone else who may send a text image of something that may offend someone.
So what is the history of the swastika?
The word "swastika" comes from the Sanskrit svastika: "su" meaning "good," "asti" meaning "to be," and "ka" as a suffix.
Until the Nazis used this symbol, the swastika was used by many cultures throughout the past 3,000 years to represent life, sun, power, strength, and good luck.
Even in the early twentieth century, the swastika was still a symbol with positive connotations. For instance, the swastika was a common decoration that often adorned cigarette cases, postcards, coins, and buildings.
During World War I, the swastika could even be found on the shoulder patches of the American 45th Division and on the Finnish air force until after World War II.
We are all aware that the Germans used the swastika but do we really know WHY they used it?
In the 1800s, countries around Germany were growing much larger, forming empires; yet Germany was not a unified country until 1871. To counter the feeling of vulnerability and the stigma of youth, German nationalists in the mid-nineteenth century began to use the swastika, because it had ancient Aryan/Indian origins, to represent a long Germanic/Aryan history.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the swastika could be found on nationalist German volkisch periodicals and was the official emblem of the German Gymnasts' League.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the swastika was a common symbol of German nationalism and could be found in a multitude of places such as the emblem for the Wandervogel, a German youth movement; on Joerg Lanz von Liebenfels' antisemitic periodical Ostara; on various Freikorps units; and as an emblem of the Thule Society.
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