BERKELEY — Police and metropolis councilmembers strongly voiced opposition to ugly, crude flyers promoting antisemitic statements discovered Sunday outdoors a number of hills houses.
In a assertion Monday, police mentioned officers responded to home-owner and resident experiences of plastic sandwich luggage containing false statements blaming Jewish individuals for the COVID-19 pandemic, just like these left Sunday outdoors a number of Palo Alto houses’ doorsteps, and mentioned the luggage appeared to have been left by “a small, fringe [w]hite [s]upremacist extremist group that targets Jewish communities in addition to different minority teams all through the Bay Space.”
The Metropolis Council joined with police, saying “[a]s the middle of the free-speech motion, Berkeley has all the time supported individuals’s rights beneath the primary modification. However let’s be clear — the Berkeley Metropolis Council and our group soundly reject and condemn ANY hate crammed messages and any inference to discrimination of any form to any individual or group.
“To our Jewish neighbors, be assured that as a group, Berkeley will rise up collectively to reject anti-Semitic messages and all types of hate speech,” the council’s assertion continued. “The Berkeley Metropolis Council stands united in our zero-tolerance place in opposition to all types of hate speech in our metropolis.”
Police decried the flyers, apparently left randomly at an unnamed variety of houses, and mentioned it might vigorously examine their distribution in the identical manner it has pursued different hate-crime investigations, and reminded residents that as a part of a “United Towards Hate” marketing campaign, residents or retailers might choose up a “We Stand United Towards Hate” posters at any Berkeley Fireplace Division station.
Anybody with info or attainable surveillance digital camera footage might name Berkeley police at 510-981-5900.
Contact George Kelly at 408-859-5180.