ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — People in several Arapahoe County neighborhoods discovered plastic bags in their driveways Saturday weighted down with rocks and containing flyers for a white supremacist antisemetic film billed as a documentary.
Seven people reported the flyers to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, but deputies concluded no crime was committed because the distribution of the flyers is protected by the First Amendment.
“In the United States, people have the right to say the most ugly things,” said Scott Levin, director of the Anti-Defamation League’s mountain states region. “Look, I think that to receive these is really something that's deeply impactful on people when they get them because they are so hateful. But that doesn't mean that it's always a crime.”
Still, Levin and one of the recipients of a flyer said they have no doubt that while a crime may not have occurred, there was a motive: to spread hate.
“The honest truth is, it doesn't have to be a crime for it to have a terrible impact on not only the individuals that receive the flyers, but on the entire community that's being attacked,” Levin said. “And the best thing that I think we can do now is to stand up and say this is just unacceptable.”
The sandwich bags were apparently tossed from a passing vehicle in multiple neighborhoods.
Attorney Jeff Wolf said his wife found a flyer in the driveway at their home. He said that although he understands legally why it’s not considered a hate crime, the aim of those who spread the flyers is “to sow the seeds of antisemitic hate.”
“It's also designed to harass anyone who is Jewish in our communities against living there because this is the hate they're going to see there,” Wolf said.
The Anti-Defamation League classifies the flyers at “white supremacist propaganda.” The number of such incidents has grown in recent years, from 72 in 2018 to 163 last year.
The latest 2023 numbers show there have been 78 such cases reported, but Levin said after all the data is updated, the number at this point this year will be roughly 100.
Wolf said he has experienced antisemitism throughout his life, from someone burning a swastika into his lawn when he was a kid to someone spray-painting the symbol on his parents’ home. He said he sees the flyers in the same vein and that he refuses to cower to the attacks.
“It's supposed to design fear,” he said. “But if you want to design fear in the Jewish community that I'm a part of, maybe don't do it in the middle of the night like a coward.”
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