NYC Cab Driver Suspended For Wearing Nazi Armband Says He’s Not A Hater [Video]

A New York City cabbie and self-proclaimed National Socialist suspended for wearing a Nazi armband insists he’s not a hater and he loves everybody.

Bronx resident Gabriel Diaz, 26, claims he is just exercising his First Amendment freedom of expression rights by wearing an armband with a Nazi swastika and didn’t mean to offend anyone.

“I’m a National Socialist — what you guys call a Nazi. I am. I’m a believer of it,” the cabbie admitted in an interview. See embed below.

As far as the obvious anti-Semitic implications of displaying the Nazi symbol, Diaz claimed that “I don’t hate Jews. I’m critical of them, but I don’t hate them… that doesn’t mean that I’m anti-Semitic. That don’t make me a hater.”

Added Diaz: “If a Muslim can drive a cab wearing a turban, if a homosexual can walk around with a big rainbow flag, why can’t a person like me wear a Nazi armband?”

The Taxi and Limousine Commission suspended his hack license for 30 days for wearing the disgusting armband on the job. Diaz has apologized (although he admitted later in the interview that it pained him to apologize) and promised never to wear the Nazi insignia in the cab anymore.

When asked if the Nazis would welcome him into their movement, Diaz, who is of Dominican heritage, rhetorically responded, “Whoever said you have to be white to be a nationalist socialist? You don’t have to be white, it could be anybody.”

According to Diaz, the media and historians have told lies about the evilness of Hitler, based on his independent research. He also declared that he had no comment about whether the genocide against the Jews in the Holocaust actually happened.

The cabbie’s mother suggested that her son isn’t a racist and that “he’s innocent and naive… The family apologizes for all of this because he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s really harmless.”

Watch the interview with Nazi armband-wearing cabbie Gabriel Diaz: