West Hollywood residents outraged after vehicles display blatant messages of anti-semitic hate
Multiple law enforcement agencies have launched a joint investigation after several vehicles sporting messages of hate speech targeted were reportedly seen driving throughout West Hollywood over the weekend.
Several residents made reports to law enforcement after the vehicles, which displayed "incidents of hate speech in the community" and "messages of antisemitism," were traveling through the streets of Hollywood.
According to several witnesses, the occupants of the hate-ridden vehicles would exit and yell slurs and obscenities when confronted.
Both Beverly Hills Police Department and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department investigators are looking into the incident, which unfortunately isn't the first of its kind, after antisemitic fliers were strewn about lawns throughout Los Angeles County in April and in beach cities in February.
In response to the incident, West Hollywood city officials released a statement on the city's website, which noted that "reports are particularly distressing as we mark Harvey Milk Day. We celebrate Milk, who was Jewish and who was the first open gay man to be elected to public office in California. We will never forget the path he helped to build in rejecting discrimination and in embracing full civil rights."
It's also important to note that the sightings occurred just before the 7th Annual Interfaith Solidarity March of Los Angeles, a movement that stresses the importances of people being able to practice any religion, or no religion at all.
"This is not okay," said Dr. Arik Greenberg, a Professor of World Religions at Loyola Marymount University. "We are always going to have bigots, we're always gonna have hate-filled bigots, but it's important to have marches like this or rallies of this sort that drown out those voices."
Magen Am, a non-profit security team comprised of ex-veterans and volunteers organized by Rabbi Yossi Eilfort, has increased its patrols through the Fairfax District's Jewish neighborhoods to around-the-clock surveillance, hoping to protect the community with their safety training, and if necessary, armed response.
"Some people say it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it," Eilfort said. "My mentality is it's clear to everybody that we need it and we all pray for a day that we don't."
West Hollywood's statement concluded with one of solidarity for all West Hollywood residents, "In honoring his life and in remembering how his life was cut short by hate-fueled violence, we must commit to standing together in rejecting hate. Hate has no place in West Hollywood."
