This thread is not meant to be political or stir the pot in any way, shape or form, only to inform others so they do not have the experience we did. I hope any political comments are deleted by the mods. I’m a member of the WARPS RC club in Berwick, LA. We host 2 fly ins every year, one in the spring to coincide with a local festival and one in the fall, usually the first or second Saturday in November. The Saturday prior to the fly ins, weather permitting, we do a static display at the local Wal Mart to hand out flyers and promote the events. We’ve done this display for years without incident, this year was different. We had been set up for about 2 hours when two ladies who claimed to be managers came out and asked if we had permission to be there and who had given the approval. Our club secretary who had obtained permission from the store manager spoke with the ladies. One of the ladies said we could not have political displays this close to an election. Apparently the 1/10 scale 727 done up as Donald Trump’s original private plane was considered by them to be political advertisement. Not sure how as he is not on the ballot and even though we did not agree with their objection we agreed to cover the Trump name on the side of the plane. At that point the other manager said we could not display swastikas or other racist symbols and had to remove two other planes. When we asked what racist symbols we were displaying she pointed to the two ugly sticks that were done in the traditional red and white with iron crosses on the wings, fuse and tail. When I pointed out that they were iron crosses, the German air force national insignia which is used to this day on all German military aircraft, and not swastikas we were informed we were causing a disturbance and had to pack up and leave or they would call the police. While we started packing up our club secretary tried to reason with the two managers, to no avail. One of the ladies stated that even though they weren’t swastikas someone might mistake them for one. Shortly after that the ladies left, and as we continued to pick up two sheriff’s deputies arrived. The managers had called the police on us, even though no voices were raised, no threats were made and we were cooperating. The deputies treated us with respect, understood the situation and were just doing their job, but the fact they were called in the first place is an issue.

I understand that it is their property and they have every right to decide what’s displayed there, and with the exception of the 727 that was just recently finished, this display was no different than any others we have done in the past. My advice to any clubs that do this sort of display is to get your permission for the display in writing and make sure the person you get it from is the final word, as apparently at Wal Mart any manager can call the police and throw you off the property.

I’ve attached pictures of our display, including one showing the Trump covered up. We didn’t have any German WWII planes with swastikas on the tail or any allied warbirds with swastika kill markings.

Saw this on Facebook

I would set up one somewhere else, sounds to me that the 2 managers are expressing their own personal interest..
I see nothing wrong with Trumps jet and if you did have swastikas on a Warbird it is history.
People need to get over it and quite worrying about being politically correct or winding up peoples feelings.
It has been going that way since everyone started getting a trophy, win or lose.

My old boss had a saying. "No good deed goes unpunished ". It's sad how modeling can cause people to lose their mind.

Wow.... Unbelievable !!!! So sorry to hear this happened to you.

I truly wonder if out society can get any more upside down and backwards, just wow

I'm offended by how easily people get offended

Originally Posted by scale only 4 me

I truly wonder if out society can get any more upside down and backwards, just wow

I'm offended by how easily people get offended

Yes!, it is happening.......it's called "The Dumbing/Down Of Society" ......slow but real......

Really? You are suprised by this?
Walmart, in an attempt to support the communities in which they do business, allow community minded groups such as Scouts, schools, teams, etc. to set up on their property free of charge.
Signage, stickers, insignia or posters that reflect controversial topics that may affect their sales, or offend a segment of their customer base should be avoided. Turn on your television for 10 minutes if you have doubts.
Walmart is under no obligation to be accomodating, nice or even fair to a group that might affect their bottom line.

absurd,,, will shoppers actually not shop there because of a model airplane scheme??,,,

Just a bunch of hair-triggers snowflakes ready to go off on anything and OMG when someone dares to politely correct them on the actual facts they run to call the police,,

LOL,, but not really funny

Originally Posted by atchfoot

Really? You are suprised by this?
Walmart, in an attempt to support the communities in which they do business, allow community minded groups such as Scouts, schools, teams, etc. to set up on their property free of charge.
Signage, stickers, insignia or posters that reflect controversial topics that may affect their sales, or offend a segment of their customer base should be avoided. Turn on your television for 10 minutes if you have doubts.
Walmart is under no obligation to be accomodating, nice or even fair to a group that might affect their bottom line.

You hit the nail on the head with the last line of your post:
“......to a group that might affect their bottom line.” Walmart ticked me off some years back..... Haven’t spent a dime with them since. Now...... Tell your story to a local newspaper or TV station and add your members not spending anything with them and you’ll dent their bottom line at that store. Also the negative publicity from this being spread about town would do a little denting of the bottom line too!
WT

I doubt this would be picked up by even local news stations.
A boycott by a bunch of airplane guys probably not gonna get anyone at Walmart excited either.

Originally Posted by atchfoot

I doubt this would be picked up by even local news stations.
A boycott by a bunch of airplane guys probably not gonna get anyone at Walmart excited either.

haha,, the headline/tease would be Nazi White Nationalists Terrorize Wallmart Shoppers,, Police needed to remove them,,

Story on page 32 would say "a few shoppers offended by toy airplanes"

Nothing wrong with your display at all. People are just ignorant.


The WalMart manager just probably didn't want to hear about it from his boss, so he had you removed.

That’s what happens when people keep voting blue. Bad part is, it’s spreading like the flu. Live here in CA and you offend just about everyone in some form or another.

Push people you know to not give up the fight and vote red.

I’m sure I’ve already offended people here.

I am by no means a Trump supporter, and even I think this is stupid. And I have yet to ever see anyone confuse an Iron Cross for a swastika.