Antisemitic flyer connected to Warwick baggies pops up in North Providence
NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — North Providence police say an antisemitic flyer was discovered in the town earlier this week, and they believe it's the same one as the hundreds found in Warwick Tuesday.
Police Chief Alfred Ruggerio says a resident reported finding a suspicious package in his front lawn on Cleveland Street, which turned out to be identical to the ones in Oakland Beach. Some of the bags included messages with the words "DEFCON 3," "KANYE" and "2024" and a Star of David with a line through it. The flyer blamed aspects of the slave trade on the Jewish community.
Ruggerio said he believes there's a connection between the discoveries in both municipalities.
"We are taking this seriously" Ruggerio said. "[The flyers] are making the folks of this town and city a little uncomfortable, and we're going to do our best to come a solution on this."
North Providence police scoured the neighborhood for surveillance video of the incident but came up empty. Ruggerio says the bag was sent out for analysis and any fingerprint hits. He notes his department could meet with detectives from Warwick police as soon as Thursday to discuss findings and leads. The incident is not believed to be targeted.
"It's going to be a joint investigation with Warwick," Ruggerio told NBC 10 News.
NBC 10 spoke with the man who says the bag was found at his home. He says he noticed it as he was heading to work.
"It’s disappointing. It’s something you hear about and say, 'Oh, that’s never going to happen to me,'" he said. "It doesn’t threaten me but it is upsetting."
Neighbors in the area of Cleveland Street reacted.
"It's just really sick, especially to know it hit so close in the neighborhood," said Chelsea Dolan, who was caring for her elderly grandmother living alone in the area. "People are getting attacked in the middle of the night with these hateful messages and we have to work together to stop spreading it, I think."
"It's just terrible," said Michael Keeler. "People need to be educated and know that this is so wrong, like unbelievably wrong."
Ruggerio says this isn't the first incident of this nature this fall. A similar situation happened weeks ago on Oct. 16 when officers discovered antisemitic propaganda on Garfield Street. Ruggerio says those papers were also collected and sent in for analysis, but nothing came back on it.
Those papers, he says, are the exact same ones which were found in Newport, also on Oct. 16.
Newport police tell us they arrested and cited David Kim of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Nicholas Bysheim, of Lusby, Maryland, for littering what was later discovered as "anti-Jewish literature pamphlets" onto Newport city public sidewalks and private and public property in the early hours on the morning that day.
Those men will appear in Newport Municipal Court date on Dec. 12.
NBC 10 News reached out to Warwick police for an update on their investigation but did not hear back.
