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Neighbors react to antisemitic flyers as Sarasota authorities investigate

Around 100 flyers with anti-Jewish propaganda were distributed in the Oyster Bay and Cherokee Park neighborhoods.

Antisemitic flyers have popped up in some Sarasota neighborhoods, and they are now part of a nationwide investigation into who is leaving them at homes.

Around 100 flyers with anti-Jewish propaganda were distributed in the Oyster Bay and Cherokee Park neighborhoods.

Some homeowners reported that they found the hateful messages in bags Friday morning in their driveways.

"I came out to get the newspaper in the morning and there was a bag, a little baggie and it had rice in it and I looked at it and I thought what is that," said Diana, who didn't want to use her last name for safety reasons.  

Investigators with Sarasota County Sheriff's Office and the Sarasota Police Department said inside the bag was an antisemitic flyer.

The headline read "Every single aspect of the COVID agenda is Jewish." 

Neighbors wanted to know why their neighborhood was targeted.

"I felt in a way a little violated, I would say violated and I felt offended," said Diana. 

Similar antisemitic and falsehood-filled flyers attributed to an online group have also shown up in Miami and as far west as San Francisco, according to authorities.

"That is of great concern to us and whether it leads to something more, we obviously want to put a stop to that before that happens," said Megan Krahe, a spokesperson for the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office.

Local authorities said they are now working with regional and national law enforcement to track down the person or people behind the flyers.

"We are actually working with a joint terrorism task force, not that there is a specific threat that we're aware of, but just to have everybody on the same page," said Krahe.

"We hate to see that this is happening in our community. It's not just targeted to any specific neighborhood or any specific area, so if folks have information or they saw something suspicious, if they notice something unusual on their home cameras and their ring doorbells, they should definitely give Sarasota police or law enforcement in their jurisdiction a call," said Sarasota Police Spokesperson Genevieve Judge.

Leaders of local organizations that bring together Jewish families in the community are also reacting to the emergence of the flyers.

"It feels like an invasion. It feels like a malicious and willful attack on someone's identity, and it feels very unamerican," said Shep Englander, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee.

Englander told 10 Tampa Bay's Hannah Dineen that the incident has shaken his community, describing the moment he learned of the incident: "Our security director called me and told me he'd received several messages from people in our community that were shocked and disgusted by this."

Some neighbors like Diana are now stepping up their security by adding cameras. 

"It's actually kind of motivated my husband to call ADT and to look into further surveillance for our house," she said.

"Enough is enough and I think that if we don't call these things out that there will be more and more of them. It's totally uncalled for, really discriminatory and hateful," she concluded.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact either Crime Stoppers, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office Investigations Bureau at 941-861-4900 or to dial the Sarasota Police Department at 941-263-6773.

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