ROSWELL, Ga. — Neighbors in a North Fulton subdivision hit with hateful messages hope a new video will help police identify those responsible.
During the Memorial Day weekend, Channel 2 Action News showed the antisemitic flyers left in driveways in a Roswell neighborhood.
Now, Channel 2′s Michael Seiden went to Roswell to learn more, and why the people behind the flyers could avoid charges.
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Roswell police still say the fliers are part of an ongoing investigation, but neighbors in the subdivision said they hope video could be enough for police to identify the group behind the hate.
The surveillance video is now at the center of the investigation, and police say the video was recorded last month in the Edenwilde neighborhood of Roswell, just before 11 p.m. on Memorial Day weekend.
In the video, you can clearly see when the passenger of a white car starts tossing little bags onto yards and driveways.
The next morning, neighbors woke up to find hundreds of the bags, filled with messages of hate targeting the Jewish and transgender communities.
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One of the neighbors, Megan Laycock, told Channel 2 Action News she’s still disgusted that the fliers were spread.
“I thought it was awful and I was embarrassed,” Laycock said. “Unfortunately, it can be anywhere and show its ugly head even in the safest communities.”
In recent months, similar flyers have repeatedly been put out across the metro area, including in Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Cherokee County, and East Atlanta.
For the Roswell incident, neighbors were quick to act. One woman told Seiden that she collected probably more than 200 flyers that weekend, showing him a trash bag full of them.
Roswell police are still looking for the culprits.
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Georgia Sen. Josh McLaurin, who represents homeowners in the area, said there are ways to prosecute people for these antisemitic attacks, but it’s complicated by free speech protections.
“Now, unfortunately, the First Amendment here affords these individuals a lot of freedom,” McLaurin told Channel 2 Action News. Still, he said there were some legal ways to prosecute for it.
“If they know that they’re dropping flyers in the driveways of Jewish families, for example, and their intention is to make those families miserable to harass them, specifically, that starts to become the type of conduct that can be prohibited and that we have state statutes anti-harassment statutes that do prohibit,” McLaurin explained.
Police are reviewing additional surveillance footage from another camera near the neighborhood, and for now, it’s unclear when the investigation will be completed.
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