A remarkably ugly flyer was left on doorsteps Monday, May 2, 2022, in the Park West neighborhood of Culver City, south of Culver between Sawtelle and Sepulveda. Culver City resident Lorelei Laird reported it to the police, but also took the important step of reporting it to local news.
According to the Culver City Police, “Multiple residents called … early Monday morning to report the incident, and a total of 13 copies of this publication were found. This publication was produced by a known hate group who has distributed similar hate materials in surrounding cities.”
Bearing the incredible title “Every Single Aspect of the Covid Agenda is Jewish,” the flyer displayed a series of bizarre acronyms in red, blue and black ink, and included a QR code for people to access a website. A list of names connected to federal offices or pharmaceutical businesses were identified as being Jewish, including several that obviously were not (Becerra? Buckley?) The flyer was left on doorsteps in a plastic bag weighted down with debris.
Mayor Daniel Lee noted that “The antisemitic flyers that have appeared throughout LA County in the last few months have now been seen in Culver City. These flyers are meant to induce fear, to provoke and to divide our community. We will not be divided and we will not tolerate hate in our community.”
While anonymous flyers have, tragically, become a staple of election years in Culver City, this is one that seems to be unrelated to any local politics. The national anti-vaccination disinformation campaign has been the cause of many deaths in the last few years, and seems to have blended in here with one of the oldest, weirdest and most utterly inaccurate conspiracy theories of all time. This is the kind of hyper-paranoid propaganda that conspiracy theorists have been flogging since the early Middle Ages in Europe.
According to a report in the Los Angeles Times in February of 2022, Los Angeles recorded the most hate crimes among large U.S. cities last year, posting a 71% jump in the incidents. Most hate crimes targeted Black residents, but members of the city’s LBGTQ communities were targeted in 132 alleged crimes, Latinos were the focus of 101 cases, and 80 antisemitic cases and 41 anti-Asian incidents were reported to [Los Angeles] police.
People who suffer from mental illness think that distributing this kind of information is a public service. It is, in fact, a symptom of extremely disordered thinking and can lead to violence. Because paranoia combines a need for help with an inability to trust, it can be very difficult to treat. With disinformation creating a constant challenge, people need to be cautious and thoughtful about where and what they consider reliable.
The CCPD request that ‘Anyone with information related to this incident is encouraged to contact the Culver City Police Department’s Public Information Officer, Sergeant Eddie Baskaron at 310-253-6316, or the Watch Commander at 310-253-6202.”
Judith Martin-Straw
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