As the antisemitic flyers produced by Sonoma County native Jon Minadeo II blanketed Bay Area neighborhoods over the previous yr, responding regulation enforcement companies repeatedly provided variations of the same apology: There is nothing they’ll do to cease protected speech, nonetheless hateful it might be.
Last Saturday, the Palm Beach (Florida) Police Department discovered one thing to do about it, nonetheless modest. They cited Minadeo for littering, together with 4 different males, after they had been apprehended tossing weighted baggies containing propaganda sheets focusing on Jews.
“We’re continuing to confer with local law enforcement partners on the matter. And we’ll be investigating any further incidents,” Palm Beach Police Capt. Will Rothrock instructed The Press Democrat.
The influence is restricted. Each man was fined $163 for littering from a automobile. It’s a non-criminal infraction, which means it isn’t even recorded as a misdemeanor. If they’re caught once more, it will likely be one other $163; the penalty doesn’t escalate until somebody is discovered dumping big a great deal of trash.
Still, Minadeo’s identify wound up in the pages of The Palm Beach Post, together with David Y. Kim, 60, of Pennsylvania; Jonathan Okay. Baldwin, 27, of Indiana; and Nicholas A. Bysheim, 33, of Maryland.
The paper listed Minadeo’s dwelling state as California, calling him “a well-known antisemitic agitator from Sonoma County.” But at the very least two sources who know the provocateur say he has moved to the Sarasota, Fla., space.
Minadeo has been extremely lively there, filming a number of flyer-distribution runs for use on his GoyimTV.com web site and importing the movies to his account on Gab, the correct wing social media platform. On a type of runs, Minadeo and Bysheim threw the baggies from a towed U-Haul trailer. The automobile was pulled over by the Plantation (Florida) Police Department, and Bysheim was arrested when he refused to supply identification.
Minadeo shouted obscenities and antisemitic slurs on the arresting officer. After visiting the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to verify on Bysheim’s standing, Minadeo left his propaganda flyers beneath the windshield wipers of Sheriff’s Office squad vehicles.
They are acquainted ways to Bay Area residents who’ve left their properties in the morning to search out hate speech in driveways and on lawns — together with neighborhoods in Santa Rosa, Windsor and Napa.
One native Jewish chief expressed combined emotions on Minadeo’s relocation from Petaluma to Florida.
“Gosh. Either way, it’s a problem,” stated Rabbi Mordecai Miller of Congregation Beth Ami in Santa Rosa, whose synagogue is just not removed from a propaganda dump last September. “On one hand, yeah, it’s good he moved out of city. On the opposite hand, there are clearly points with him shifting to a spot the place there are extra Jews, and extra aged Jews.
“Why would he do this? Possibly to be more effective, I don’t know.”
As Minadeo’s infamy unfold after The Press Democrat and different retailers started reporting on him, many readers expressed outrage when police departments insisted there was nothing they may do about it. It’s an advanced topic, in line with a Cal State Stanislaus professor.
“In general, it’s a crime if the speech is likely to incite violence,” Phyllis Gerstenfeld, chair of the varsity’s Criminal Justice division, instructed The Press Democrat final March. “The line here is really fuzzy. For example, writing ‘I wish all Jews would be killed’ is probably protected speech; writing ‘Everyone should pick up a gun right now and kill Jews’ is probably not. And of course there’s a gray area in between.”
A uncommon occasion of an American being prosecuted for hate speech did happen final March. Nicholas Sherman, who’s affiliated with the racist Aryan National group, pleaded responsible to at least one felony cost (desecrating a spiritual image) and one misdemeanor (terrorism by image) in Sacramento after he was arrested for taping antisemitic flyers to a menorah exterior the Shalom Le Israel synagogue in Carmichael.
The “terrorism by symbol” cost utilized as a result of Sherman’s flyers included a swastika. The handouts produced by Minadeo — they’re simply downloaded and printed, typically making it arduous to find out if he’s personally concerned in littering campaigns — don’t present swastikas.
Other international locations take a tougher stance. In September, Polish authorities arrested Minadeo and a fellow “protester” for holding up antisemitic placards exterior the Auschwitz focus camp in Poland. The consequence of that case is unclear.
In the United States, there are few statutes for regulation enforcement to make use of in opposition to hatemongers. The littering quotation is among the many few choices.