SAN DIEGO — San Diego Police collected multiple flyers off car windshields Wednesday with Anti-Semitic messages. Police found them on Zion and Archwood streets in the Allied Gardens area.
"We won't get into what the flyers say," San Diego Police Lieutenant Adam Sharki said. "We won't amplify any message of hate. The flyers are inflammatory. They are racist and bigoted, and nasty. The police department doesn’t stand for it or any hate incident."
Lt. Sharki said this is not a hate crime but a hate incident they will investigate.
"Leaving flyers in a public place, regardless of the content, does not qualify as a crime, as disgusting or distasteful as that message might be. If it leads to broken windows or someone assaulted, then it is a crime," Lt. Sharki said.
However, the executive director of Stop Anti-Semitism, Liora Rez, disagreed.
"When we look at civil rights, the Jewish people have protected civil rights, and these particular groups and these flyers are targeting the Jewish people," Rez said. "We disagree that this is not a hate crime; it is one. A case of a physical assault shouldn’t have to happen for them to enact hate crime laws. This group blames everything from abortion, the gun control debate, the war on Ukraine war, animal slaughter, and COVID; they blame it on the Jews. Their goal is to vilify the Jews."
San Diego Police are investigating a hate crime involving an assault against a San Diego Chabad Jewish Center member.
A tweet from @StopAntisemites said, "We are horrified to hear a member of the San Diego Chabad Jewish Center at San Diego State University has been assaulted. The attacker ripped the victim's tzitzit (a traditional Jewish garment) and yelled anti-Semitic slurs. In March, the same Chabad's menorah was vandalized."
“We are investigating a hate crime and activating any leads," Lt. Sharki said.
In July, CBS 8 talked to a married couple who found similar flyers in their San Carlos neighborhood. People living in Del Cerro and Santee also found flyers on their car windshields.
"Anti-Semitism is getting worse at a startling rate in California, and we need to do everything to stop this," Rez said.
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