Beverly Hills police investigating antisemitic flyers in the area
Authorities in Beverly Hills are investigating antisemitic flyers that they say were dispersed in the area overnight.
Beverly Hills police say the flyers were seen in the north-end of the city and have been collected.
No current threat to the community is believed to exist, police said.
However residents are concerned that the messages could potentially lead to more egregious and violent events of antisemitism.
"Often, when the world is in turmoil, often times historically antisemitism rises," Jeffrey Abrams from the Anti Defamation League Los Angeles told CBSLA Reporter Jake Reiner.
Lili Bosse, the mayor of Beverly Hills, denounced the messages on the flyers Sunday.
In several tweets, Bosse shared:
Additionally, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also took to Twitter to condemn the hate speech signs posted on Sunday.
"L.A. is a city of belonging, not hate. We condemn this weekend's antisemitic incidents. Jewish Angelenos should always feel safe. There is no place for discrimination or prejudice in Los Angeles. And we will never back down from the fight to expose and eliminate it," the Mayor shared in a tweet posted on Twitter on Sunday.
The prominent antisemitic group responsible for the signs, which neither the regional director of the ADL nor the COO of the Jewish federation, wished to call the group by name has done stunts like this before.
However this time around the signs had a different message. The signs read, "Honk if you know," and "Kanye is right about the Jews."
Kanye West has been on a tour of antisemitic speech recently,
saying that he's "going Defcon 3 on Jewish people" and that society is being controlled by Jewish people.
Needless to say, this concerns those closely connected to the Jewish community because of what this could potentially lead to.
"What worries me is one of the consequences of this speech both at a national level and on a local level. Who is listening, who's sitting there watching this online and getting inspired to potentially take this to the next step," Ivan Wolkind of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles said.
Abrams told Reiner that corporations that are associated with Kanye West need to put their foot down to condemn his antisemitism language.
Moreover, both LA Mayoral candidates Rep. Karen Bass and real estate developer Rick Caruso both showed their support for the Jewish community and said that the hate speech is unacceptable.
