Coronado residents and members of San Diego’s Jewish community expressed outrage after a neighborhood was papered with antisemitic flyers late Tuesday night.
Coronado police said the department was “aware” of the flyers left on vehicles in the Village area, noting the incident was under investigation.
Residents said the flyers with offensive language about Jewish people were left on cars parked on 6th Street as well as in the nearby alley, close to Village Elementary, Coronado Middle School and Coronado High School.
“It’s heinous. It has no place in civil society,” said Coronado resident Carl Luna. “I think most people of goodwill in the community are shocked that it happened.”
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The flyers also pointed specifically to a bill on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk that would crack down on these kinds of incidents, which lawmakers have called “hate littering.”
AB 3024 would expand the definition of "intimidation by threat of violence" to include distribution on private property of materials meant to terrorize. It would also allow for civil penalties of up to $25,000.
“I'm disappointed, but I'm also not surprised,” Sara Brown, regional director of the American Jewish Committee San Diego, said of the flyers in Coronado. “There have been numerous incidents of hate littering across communities all over San Diego and unfortunately, this is the latest community to be targeted with this kind of antisemitism and hateful behavior.
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“Unfortunately, we saw a spike in hate littering last year as well, which was one of the reasons that our community and some of our elected officials came together and decided to proactively address it."
Brown said she was part of the conversations with lawmakers about AB 3024, which was sent to Newsom for his signature on Friday. She said it could act as a deterrent to flyers like the ones in Coronado, as well as those targeting other marginalized communities.
“Any form of hatred against any targeted community: It is an attack on the community as a whole,” Brown said. “Antisemitism is not just a rot against the Jewish community, it's a rot against our San Diego community, and we deserve better.”
The flyers in Coronado came at a time when hate crimes in San Diego County and across the country have continued to rise.
Antisemitic incidents across the U.S. more than doubled, from 3,698 in 2022 to 8,873 in 2023, according to the Anti-Defamation League. A report SANDAG released earlier this month showed hate crimes across San Diego County increased to 133 reported last year, compared with 81 two years prior, even as most other types of crime trended downward.
“This is the sorts of tropes that are more associated with the 1930s than the 2020s, and I don’t like the direction this points us,” Luna said of the flyers in Coronado. “What starts with words has a terrible possibility of becoming real actions that hurt people. Stop it now before it gets worse.”
Newsom’s office said AB 3024 “will be evaluated on its merits,” noting the deadline to sign or veto legislation on his desk is Sept. 30.
Coronado police asked anyone with additional information on the flyers to contact them at (619) 522-7350.
