Fliers with racist and anti-Semitic messages and advertising a website of the Ku Klux Klan were found in Northern Virginia communities over the weekend leading up to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Beginning Friday at 10 p.m., the Leesburg Police Department received a dozen reports of the fliers, weighed down with hard candy to prevent them flying away. There were also reports in other areas of Loudoun County, said Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Alex Kowalski.
“Unfortunately, they can throw these fliers,” Kowalski said. “There’s nothing illegal about that.”
One of the fliers reads “Join the United States Army and Fight for Israel.” The caricature shows an American soldier standing in front of a balding, bulbous nosed man in plaid shorts holding an Israeli flag.
Another disparages King as a “Communist alcoholic pervert,” while a third lists Jews it says control the media and entertainment industries.
The police are operating under the assumption that these fliers were put out by the same group that leafleted other parts of Leesburg in October and several months before that, said Officer Sam Shenouda, a spokesperson for the Leesburg Police Department. Both he and Kowalski said police did not believe specific people or neighborhoods had been targeted.
“The way they distribute these fliers is just so random,” Shenouda said, adding that most of Leesburg has probably been leafletted over the course of the past few incidents.
The investigation is ongoing. While distributing fliers with these sentiments is protected under the First Amendment, law enforcement is keeping track of these events and identifying groups and individuals associated. Shenouda said he couldn’t comment on any details of that investigation.
“There’s been an uptick in all sorts of hate activity, whether it’s in the schools or the public sphere,” said Ron Halber, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. “It’s particularly galling it’s happening on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, when we’re celebrating a civil rights icon.”
But Halber cautioned against getting too upset or outraged over this incident. It only emboldens the perpetrators, he said.
“I think we have to be careful not to give too much power to the leafletters,” he said.
Those with any information are encouraged to contact the Leesburg Police Department or Loudon County Sheriff’s Office.
hmonicken@midatlanticmedia.com
