ATLANTA — Brian Taylor has lived in the Kirkwood community since 1988. He said he had never seen anything like what he ran into early Sunday morning.
"I thought it was trash," Taylor said. "When I was walking the dog, I did notice some colorful pieces of paper up and down the street. So I’m sure it wasn’t just this house.”
Someone had distributed anti-Jewish and anti-transgender messages on the doorsteps of several East Atlanta neighborhoods, including Lake Claire and Candler Park.
The flyers, contained inside plastic bags with corn kernels to weigh them down, appear to show a large, rainbow-colored Star of David and display QR codes with links to websites with Anti-Semitic and anti-transgender statements.
"What a shame, I think it’s ridiculous," Taylor said. "People are people, and shouldn’t be getting down on others no matter how they are.”
The Anti-Defamation League recommends reporting these types of incidents to police and the organization. Southeast regional director Eytan Davidson said the ADL tracked a substantial increase in Anti-Semitic acts in Georgia from 2021 to 2022.
“There’s a small group of folks behind these flyer incidents," Davidson said. "They’re just getting more active. The reason they’re doing this is they’re trying to normalize a disgusting, hateful ideology. Extremists are emboldened. For some reason, people have far less or even no shame in espousing wrong-headed, hateful ideologies meant to intimidate people.”
Davidson said the rise in hate and extremism is taking a toll on several communities in America in all forms, both physical and digital. He said there are solutions that could help curb the these acts, but they involve legal and legislative means, and he said those solutions could play out more gradually.
State Rep. Esther Panitch (D-Sandy Springs) received similar Anti-Semitic flyers at her Sandy Springs home a couple of months ago. Homes across Fulton and Cobb Counties, along with Athens, have been targeted recently, as well. In response, Panitch authored proposed legislation this past year that would have more clearly defined Anti-Semitism. However, it failed to pass in the statehouse.
“It would not have necessarily cut down on the flyers themselves," Panitch said. "We think they’re being put out by the same people who put the flyers in my driveway and lots of my neighbors’ driveways. The definition in the law, which is what the bill is, would help to be able to discern the intent of the person doing it, to know if they went after a Jewish person because they’re Jewish.”
Panitch is concerned that violence could follow this rash of rhetoric and vowed to continue fighting at the legislative level to get a solution in place to curb such acts.
“Just because you think you’re safe right now doesn’t mean you’ll be safe for very long," Panitch said. "I get more angry than afraid, so, for me personally, I’ve had to make some security adjustments, but in the general community we’ve had to pray under armed guard for years."
Meanwhile, Atlanta police released a statement, saying it is increasing patrols and looking into the flyers, but it has not identified any criminal acts tied to them. Because distributing flyers can be viewed as exercising first amendment rights, it is protected, which makes it hard to prosecute criminally.
Taylor said he hoped the flyers don't disrupt the feeling of peace in his community.
"Just accept them. We're all different," Taylor said. "That's what makes the world, everybody's different. If everybody was the same, it would be pretty boring wouldn't it?"