Police, council denounce racist fliers left at homes

BERKELEY >> Police and City Council members have strongly condemned crude fliers advertising anti-Semitic statements that were found Sunday outside multiple hills homes.

In a statement Monday, police said officers responded to homeowner and resident reports of plastic sandwich bags containing false statements blaming Jewish people for the COVID-19 pandemic, similar to those left Sunday outside multiple Palo Alto homes' doorsteps, and said the bags appeared to have been left by “a small, fringe white supremacist extremist group that targets Jewish communities as well as other minority groups throughout the Bay Area.”

The City Council joined with police, saying “as the center of the free-speech movement, Berkeley has always supported people's rights under the first amendment. But let's be clear — the Berkeley City Council and our community soundly reject and condemn ANY hate-filled messages and any inference to discrimination of any kind to any person or group.

“To our Jewish neighbors, be assured that as a community, Berkeley will stand up together to reject anti-Semitic messages and all forms of hate speech,” the council's statement continued. “The Berkeley City Council stands united in our zero-tolerance position against all forms of hate speech in our city.”

Police decried the fliers, apparently left randomly at an unnamed number of homes, and said it would vigorously investigate their distribution in the same way it has pursued other hate-crime investigations, and reminded residents that as part of a “United Against Hate” campaign, residents or merchants may pick up a “We Stand United Against Hate” posters at any Berkeley Fire Department station.

Anyone with information or possible surveillance camera footage may call Berkeley police at 510981-5900.