McMenamins criticized over DJ’s offensive symbols
McMenamins Old St. Francis School in Bend is receiving some criticism after a woman reported offensive images were shown by a DJ during a Halloween party on Monday.
The woman told NewsChannel 21 she attended the party with her friends and entered one room at McMenamins that played music from a DJ booth.
The woman, who agreed to be interviewed but did not want to be identified, said the visuals shown during the music displayed swastikas, in addition to images that the FBI labels as symbols used by pedophiles to identify sexual preferences. The symbol the woman said she recognized was a small spiral-shaped triangle within a larger triangle, representing “Little Boy Lover.”
“I noticed on their big, giant jumbotron, there was a skeleton face and it was flashing symbology,” the woman said Thursday. “There were swastikas, upside-down crosses, a known FBI symbology, the swirl. It was up there for at least 15 to 20 minutes, and I’m looking around and nobody seemed to really notice it, but I noticed it. I knew it was wrong, and I just want somebody to be held accountable for that.”
NewsChannel 21 reached out to McMenamins and spoke to the property manager, Free Star Yost, who said it was McMenamins’ projector screen, but the visuals were provided by the DJ hired for the evening.
“We don’t preview the band’s backdrops, and we don’t condone things associated with those symbols,” Yost said.
McMenamins hired A Fine Note Karaoke Too DJ Jackie Johnson, who also goes by DJ Bad Habit, who told Yost, she got the background from Giphy after searching psychedelic GIFs, and she did not realize the images were there.
The woman said, “I would just like them to be held accountable, to just own it and admit that it was wrong, We all know that they did it, I just would like to know how pedophile symbols known by our FBI for tracking pedophiles is acceptable to put in our faces, as well as swastikas.”
Conner McMenamin, regional manager for the McMenamins Bend location, told NewsChannel 21, “We certainly don’t condone this, and will continue to look into our policies to ensure it never happens again.”
