Antisemitic flyers spreading disinformation about COVID-19 littered a Silver Spring, Maryland, neighborhood on Saturday.
Police said they found flyers posted throughout the Forest Estate neighborhood around 9:40 a.m. The initial call to police reported that a man in a Volkswagen Jetta threw the literature from his car window around 12:35 a.m.
The flyers included an image of a syringe and a QR code directing people to a website promoting Holocaust denial and support for Adolf Hitler, residents told The Washington Post.
The same report said that flyers were put in plastic bags, weighted with rocks or corn kernels.
According to the department’s statement, Montgomery County police have started investigating the “bias incident,” and the county’s council condemned the “acts of hatred against the Jewish community.”
“The Council stands in solidarity with our Jewish community and condemns all acts of hate and ethnic or religious bigotry aimed at Jewish residents. Furthermore, the Council condemns the spread of COVID-19 disinformation in all its forms, and the use of erroneous connections to ethnic, religious and other groups to fuel abhorrently racist agendas,” the council said in a statement.
.@ricepolitics Council Statement Condemning Recent Antisemitic Activities and Spread of COVID-19 Disinformation https://t.co/WWCoccgTfV
— Craig Rice (@RicePolitics) December 21, 2021
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington thanked the county for its statement.
The JCRC thanks the @MontgomeryCoMD for its strong statement condemning recent #antisemitic activities targeting our local Jewish community. We appreciate their leadership in the face of such pernicious hatred. https://t.co/3aGa7s8rJ6
— JCRC of Greater DC (@JCRCgw) December 21, 2021
Police want anyone with information, or who knows the suspect, to call the 3rd District Patrol — Community Engagement Division at 240-773-6800.
