MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – There is new information about hate filled flyers that were dumped outside homes from Miami Beach to Broward County, and beyond.
We now know it was a Kia Soul that was captured on surveillance video just before 3 a.m. Sunday on a Miami Beach residential street.
Coming from inside that vehicle was one of the many anti-Semitic flyers that were distributed in several places, including Fort Lauderdale, Surfside and Miami Beach.
The flyers contained hate-tinged lies and false accusations.
They brought instant disgust, confusion and fear in the neighborhoods that they littered.
“This group emerged last year, but they have been around longer as an anti-Semitic white supremacist group,” said Mitchell Tapper, Security Director for the Jewish Federation of Broward County.
Security at Jewish institutions and police departments know the group, and they collected evidence, and found the rented vehicle matching the Kia description, but have not yet found the crime to prosecute first, before declaring a hate crime designation.
“We’re looking for whatever possible crime has been committed, and looking for the evidence to support that,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle.
In Florida, Hate Crime is attached to a committed or attempted crime against people or property which constitutes an expression of hatred toward the victim because of personal characteristics, including race, religion, sex or gender identity, ethnicity, age, disability and even homelessness.
“This group in particular, ongoing white supremacist rhetoric, their message is quite vile actually,” said Tapper.
But vile hate speech is still free speech, protected by the First Amendment.
When the group brought it to town last year, Miami police arrested a member for disobeying orders during a traffic stop.
This time, there was a disclaimer that the offensive flyers were “distributed randomly and without malicious intent.”