Police look into leaf lets left at homes

WHITE NATIONALIST GROUP

Westerville police are asking the public to contact them if they received one of the recruitment leaflets from a white nationalist group that were randomly distributed Sunday morning on front lawns in the Annehurst neighborhood.

In the same neighborhood, another family Sunday morning found the word “Jew” written in shaving cream on the bottom of the driveway.

Col. Jesse Hibbert of the Westerville police said Monday night that police still don’t know whether the two incidents are linked.

“To me, that it happened on the same night, it seemed odd to me,” Hibbert said.

Lara Palay, who lives on Rundlet Court, said her husband, Darren Thompson, found the graffiti on their front driveway. She and two sons are of Jewish descent.

“We called the police because we thought it should be taken seriously,” Palay said. She said the family has been heartened by the outpouring of support they have received from neighbors and the community.

The shaving cream incident is a property crime and could possibly be considered ethnic intimidation, Hibbert said.

The leaflets pose another issue. The handout is from the National Socialist Movement and states that it advocates socialist goals, but also says they are dedicated to the preservation of working European-Americans and oppose race mixing and nonwhite immigration. A phone number on the leaflets goes to a recorded phone message from the Detroit-based organization, stating it represents “white interests” and “white America.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks extremist groups, says the National Socialist Movement is known for its violent, antiJewish rhetoric and has its roots in the original American Nazi Party.

However, Hibbert said the leaflet did not appear to cross legal lines because it does not target specific groups or people.

“Though disgusting, there is nothing illegal about it, per se,” Hibbert said.

Westerville police still would like to know who distributed them.

A posting by Westerville police on Twitter stated: “Hate speech, prejudice and hate crimes are unacceptable. Thank you to our citizens for standing up to fight against injustice and for acceptance.”