Fullerton Woman Charged With Putting Up Nazi Posters at Newport Harbor HS

Photo by Gabriel San Roman

The Orange County District Attorney’s office charged Grace Ziesmer today with vandalism and graffiti–but not a hate crime–for plastering Nazi propaganda posters at Fullerton College and Newport Harbor High School in March. The Newport Beach campus proved the more infamous of the two incidents, coming a week after students attended a house party and gave a Nazi salute over red cups arranged in the shape of a swastika.

Eva Schloss, Anne Frank’s stepsister and Holocaust survivor, visited the high school to speak privately with students following the outrage provoked by social media postings of the “swig heil” beer pong stunt.

A day after the swastika party controversy exploded, Ziesmer is accused of paying Fullerton College a visit with Nazi posters in hand. On March 4, she allegedly affixed them to light poles near the campus. Posters on both campuses included swastikas and pro-Nazi messaging.

“Hate does not belong here,” DA Todd Spitzer said in a press release. “It doesn’t belong anywhere. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office is prosecuting hate crimes and hate incidents to the fullest extent of the law. I am not going to tolerate hate in Orange County.”

Ziesmer sporting a Nazi Iron Cross for a Facebook selfie. Facebook screenshot

Although the OCDA calls the 22-year-old woman’s alleged actions a “hate incident,” it cited a lack of sufficient evidence to bring hate crime charges against her. Prosecutors couldn’t tie the criminal charges to a Jewish victim in particular or establish that she targeted either school because of any given Jewish connections.

“ADL is grateful for the DA Todd Spitzer and his office for taking hate crimes and this hate incident so seriously,” says Rabbi Peter Levi, the Anti-Defamation League’s regional director for OC and Long Beach. “His clear statement that this kind of graffiti would not be tolerated in the community is most welcome.”

Meanwhile, a Pintrest page by Ziesmer is rife with historical images of the Third Reich. A glance at her Facebook page also reveals connections to people with neo-Nazi imagery on their profiles.

If convicted of one misdemeanor count of vandalism and two counts of misdemeanor graffiti, Ziesmer faces a maximum penalty of a year and six months in jail.

Updated with quote from ADL regional director.

18 Replies to “Fullerton Woman Charged With Putting Up Nazi Posters at Newport Harbor HS”

  1. 6 month of community service working with local organizations that work with hate crimes or the homeless. Then 6 more months of working with victims of abuse.

    1. Or even better, just let her go. Imagine thinking putting up a flyer is a criminal offense.

    2. lol that’s a harsher sentence that was given to the woman who kidnapped and tortured a disabled guy.

  2. lol what a joke, the article never even shows a flier or says what was written on it that was considered “Nazi”
    I bet it was something as simple as “It’s OK to be white”

  3. It’ll be interesting to see if they can make a graffiti charge stick for posting flyers. If they’re charging under Penal Code 594, I’m not sure posting flyers meets the criteria for the offense, absent permanent defacement. The prosecution might also run into first amendment issues if other (non-hate) groups posted flyers on light poles, etc, and weren’t prosecuted for the same thing.

  4. Since when is “posting propaganda” of any kind illegal in the US? I thought we had freedom of speech. Specifically, the speech that requires the most protection from silencing is unpopular and fringe.

  5. Why is the chimera that, all of a sudden, this philosophy and its proponents are depicted as a newly omniscient phenomena and suddenly appearing everywhere ? In the 60’s there were uniformed American Nazis holding large demonstrations, handing out literature on street corners, and their leader George Lincoln Rockwell even spoke at UCLA ? The philosophy is reprehensible, the practitioners scum, but it’s also becoming a political device that if one supports a certain politician or established party, there is an inferred tinge of this sickness put upon them.

    1. Unlike posting posters on public property, generating an employment blacklist IS illegal. Anyone who knows of an employer or group of employers attempting to compile such a list should report this activity to their state’s labor dept and attorney general’s office.

  6. So freedom of speech is a crime now in Orange County? You’re allowed to steal someone’s identity and stay out of jail because it’s “a non violent” crime, but posting up a flyer can result in a year in prison? See something wrong with the California “justice” system?

  7. Gabriel san roman-
    Absolute cuck, virgin. Most irrelevant mexican in OC. Once left his own peoples country because it was a shithole. Worships jews. Wishes he was more white.
    There fixed it.

    1. Most irrelevant Mexican in OC–yet, here you are commenting on my story.

      Gracias, sweet cheeks!

  8. The woman posted leaflets. Does the DA charge with graffiti every local band that posts flyers about their concerts?

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