ATLANTA — When Esther Panitch found a plastic bag containing an antisemitic flyer in her Sandy Springs driveway Feb. 5, the freshman state representative took to Twitter, venting her anger an…
By Chris Joyner | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
House Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican, began the legislative day Monday calling the incident “repulsive.” “We all know it might be the Jews today, but the same people will come after you tomorrow,” she said.Officials were quick to announce that police were investigating, but in Sandy Springs, the case is already closed. Sandy Springs Police spokesman Sgt. Matthew McGinnis said the flyers were “grotesque” but not illegal because they did not contain an explicit threat.
“If they are just putting leaflets in plastic bags on lawns … the reality is that under the First Amendment people have a right to say things that are offensive to other people,” he said. The flyers are part of a broader rise in antisemitic acts across the metro area in recent years. The number of reported incidents doubled last year in metro Atlanta, according to researchers with the Anti-Defamation League . And the problem isn’t limited to Atlanta, or even Georgia. Communities from Miami to San Francisco have reported dumps of GDL flyers over the past year identical to the ones found here. In July, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla.
“These groups are feeling more emboldened than they were even three or four years ago. Part of that is the mainstreaming of antisemitism. We’re seeing antisemitic conspiracy theories in the halls of Congress,” he said.
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