(This story was updated Dec. 20, 2016, at 3:30 p.m.)
[B]URLINGTON — Police say they’ve discovered who left anti-Semitic fliers at City Hall prior to Monday’s council meeting and are no longer investigating the incident as a possible crime.
Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo had said in a news release early Tuesday that detectives were investigating the leafleting as a possible bias incident and working to determine if a crime had occurred.
Tuesday afternoon del Pozo sent a follow-up message to reporters saying that police have identified a woman they believe to be responsible for distributing the fliers.
“She has a history of delivering similar documents to city offices and is believed to be contending with mental illness,” del Pozo said.
“As troubled as many people have felt by the flier, the person most likely responsible for it has no history of threats or action of any kind beyond creating fliers,” del Pozo added.
He said the criminal investigation is closed and his officers would refer the woman to Howard Center’s Street Outreach Team to determine “how to best refer the suspect to treatment.” He urged the public to continue to report possible bias incidents to police.
Ed Adrian, a former city councilor who attended the meeting, had tweeted an image of a flier he said his young son discovered. The flier refers to Mayor Miro Weinberger’s “Jewish demolition team.”
It says the mayor is part of a Jewish-led cabal to urbanize and integrate Burlington, suggesting development projects in the city are part of a “White Christian genocide.” Weinberger is on vacation and was not at the council meeting.
Someone passing these out at the #BTVCC meeting tonight. Henry is trying to make sense of it #MerryChristmakuah #VTpoli pic.twitter.com/daBhJZ25vN
— (((Ed Adrian))) (@CounselorAdrian) December 20, 2016
The flier derides Kelly Devine, director of the Burlington Business Association, while also misidentifying her as Jewish. Devine said it was unsettling to be targeted by anonymous hate speech.
“It’s hateful and hurtful, and it’s not representative of who we are as a community, so I’m upset about it on both of those levels,” Devine said in an interview Tuesday.
“I’m personally concerned, but I’m more concerned about the anti-Semitic tenor,” she added.
Before police identified the suspect as a person contending with mental illness, del Pozo had strongly condemned the fliers.
“Let’s put aside for a moment the fact that I’m Jewish myself,” del Pozo said in his earlier statement. “This flyer is the sign of a real sickness lurking in corners of our community, one expressed in this case by cowardly leafleting.”
“This is a deeply troubled person raging against the changing world through the lens of anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim biases,” the chief added. “It would be easier to dismiss it as a disturbed voice crying out in the wilderness were it not for the fact that the flyers were distributed in the city’s most treasured civic space in the moments before a meeting of its city council. Attempting to hijack our democratic process to convey hate is intolerable.”
The fliers complain that the post office is offering stamps “in Islam” and Hanukkah — “no Christmas except in bulk,” and say Vermont was founded as a Christian community until “a 2011 takeover.”
Del Pozo didn’t say how many fliers were found.
A similar incident involving the distribution of Ku Klux Klan recruitment fliers to two women of color in Burlington resulted in hate crime charges against William Schenk.
Schenk accepted a deal in that case, pleading no contest to the charges. He was sentenced to four months and released for time served into the custody of sheriff’s deputies from New York, where he faced unrelated criminal charges.
Schenk’s plea agreement allows him to appeal the denial of an earlier motion seeking dismissal of the hate crime charges to the Vermont Supreme Court. Schenk’s public defenders had argued the charges infringed on his First Amendment right to free speech.
An appeal has been filed with the Vermont Supreme Court, and the Vermont chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief with the court opposing the state’s prosecution of Schenk.
The civil liberties group said his criminal prosecution infringes on constitutionally guaranteed rights of free speech and could have a chilling effect on political speech more broadly.
