Much has transpired since A News Café last reported the increase in the distribution of antisemitic, white supremacist, and neo-Nazi hate speech flyers in the front yards of homes in the North State. A News Café previously reported that Chico-area resident Christopher Acret had shared a photograph of piles of nearly 30 different hate speech flyers on a desk in his residence. Acret shared the photograph around the same time that some of the same flyers he’d photographed were distributed around Chico.
It was not clear, at the time of the last A News Café report, if Acret had actually distributed hate speech flyers in Chico or elsewhere. Also, as of just a few months ago, Chico Police Department’s Public Information Officer Kelly DeLeon said the CPD had not identified a person of interest.
As previously reported, DeLeon told A News Café that CPD dispatchers received multiple calls for hate speech literature on five separate days since the beginning of 2023.
However, since then, A News Café gained new information and learned of Christopher Acret’s profile on the social networking service platform called Gab. Acret goes by the name “Pistil” on Gab, and his Gab handle is Thepistilpacker.
After locating Acret’s Gab social media profile, A News Café independently discovered that Acret has also shared videos on the website Odysee that show him distributing hate speech flyers in Chico, and also protesting in front of an LGBTQ+ event in Chico. Similar to his Twitter and Gab profiles, Acret’s handle on Odysee is Pistil.
Video shows Acret tossing hate speech flyers
On April 23 Acret shared a video of himself tossing Goyim Defense League hate speech flyers into several yards while sitting in the passenger seat of a moving vehicle. Acret’s video appeared around the same time that hate speech flyers were found outside Chico homes in several neighborhoods, incidents that were subsequently reported to the Chico Police Department.
Acret’s video captures as least one other participant, possibly the driver of the vehicle, who is heard laughing while Acret tosses the flyers out the window.
In the video, as Acret tossed flyers from the vehicle, he could be heard verbally disparaging Jewish people. Shortly after A News Café first wrote about Acret, he deleted the video from his Gab account that showed him tossing flyers from the vehicle.
On April 22, the day before Acret shared the video on Gab that showed him throwing flyers from a vehicle, he shared three videos from local news stories regarding the distribution of hate speech flyers in Chico. One of the local news videos Acret shared was a February story about the distribution of hate speech flyers
Acret brags about distributing hate speech flyers
The February news story Acret shared featured home surveillance video footage of a silver/gray sedan circling a cul-de-sac in Chico while a passenger pitched hate speech flyers from an open window. The vehicle appeared to be either a silver/gray hued late 2000s Ford Fusion, or Mercury Milan with dark wheels.
“3 flyerings and 3 news reports” bragged Acret in his April 22 Gab post.
Christopher Acret also shared on social media three North State news stories regarding what appeared to be Acret’s hate speech flyers, along with Acret’s comment, “3 flyerings and 3 news reports”.
On April 26, Acret posted on social media a photo of two large boxes of clear plastic zip-top baggies along with the statement, “1000 more sandwich bags for the cause.”
Later the same day Acret posted on social media a photograph of four larger plastic bins filled with GDL flyers in baggies ready to distribute. “1500 flyers ready to go,” wrote Acret.
And also on April 26, when Acret shared a link to a local news story about the distribution of hate speech flyers in Chico, he blithely asked, “Who did that?”
Finally, on April 29, the same day Jewish Chico State history faculty member Eran Zelnik found a flyer outside his home, Acret shared on social media a photograph of five large plastic shopping bags filled with individually packed hate speech flyers.
“500 more flyers bagged and rolled up for easy throwing while I drive,” reported Acret.
Although Acret often appears in videos and photos with face coverings, several times on social media Acret’s face is revealed while captured him in the act of distributing hate speech flyers that clearly identify Acret as the culprit. In addition to showing Acret littering neighborhoods with hate speech flyers, he has taken to social media to broker the sale of hate speech flyers.
Continued attacks on Jewish Chico State professor
Acret has a long history of posting antisemitic and racist comments and hate speech on social media.
But most recently, Acret used Twitter to deliver a targeted variety of antisemitic messages and content specifically for CSU, Chico, professor Eran Zelnik, whose quotes were included in the ANC story.
Ever since A News Café first reported Acret’s hate-speech activities, Acret has repeatedly used Twitter to verbally torment Zelnick.
In one especially egregious June 8 taunt, Acret posted a comment under an article that Zelnik had shared on Twitter:
“Did your grandmother play soccer at Auschwitz?” asked Acret.
Zelnik’s grandmother was an Auschwitz survivor during the Jewish Holocaust.
Acret increased his verbal attacks against Zelnik when he said the professor was “lying like a Jew”. Acret also falsely accused Zelnik of being quoted in the previous A News Café story saying he was targeted with antisemitic propaganda because he was Jewish.
In truth, although the ANC story quoted Zelnik as he speculated whether being Jewish had caused him to be targeted with antisemitic materials, the ANC story never quoted Zelnik stating it as a matter of fact.
These are now moot points, because since Acret’s false allegations against Zelnik, Acret has sent GDL flyers to Zelnik on social media. Although the GDL flyers Acret sent to Zelnik include words that claim, “These flyers were distributed randomly without malicious intent” the fact that Acret has specifically used antisemitic language on social media against Zelnik, who is Jewish, provides evidence that Acret’s attacks against Zelnik are indeed malicious, and appear to target Zelnik for being Jewish.
Acret attacks LGBTQ+ professor on social media
Acret also targeted another Chico State professor, Lindsay Briggs, a faculty member in the school’s Department of Health and Human Services Administration, who openly identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Acret attacked Briggs after the professor retweeted the first A News Café story regarding the distribution of hate speech flyers and social media content.
“A sane society would not allow you to be an educator and spread your mental illness,” wrote Acret in reference to Briggs. In addition to Acret’s propensity for posting antisemitic and racist content on social media, Acret is also known for posting on social media anti-LGBTQ+ comments and content.
For example, on June 9, he posted a video on his Gab social media platform that showed Acret using a blow torch to burn a small Israel flag and LGBTQ+ rainbow flag. Acret’s accompanying text said, “gas”.
No comment from Acret
An ample amount of evidence shows that Acret has publicly identified himself on social media as a neo-Nazi, white supremacist, and anti-LGBTQ+ rights extremist.
Soon after A News Café first wrote about Acret’s racist and antisemitic social media posts, as well as his hate-speech propaganda and his collections of assault rifles and firearms, Acret began to target A New Café and its writers on social media.
A News Café reached out to Acret for comment, but he declined. He said that even if he did provide a statement to ANC, he would be treated unfairly. Furthermore, Acret accused A News Café of painting him “as a terrorist” by describing his political beliefs, and by disclosing that he owned a collection of assault rifles and other firearms.
“Are you trying to get the FBI to knock on my door?” asked Acret in response to a series of ANC’s emailed questions. “Are you going to put my address in the next one so your antifa buddies can come harass me?”
Acret did not respond to A News Café’s inquiries regarding why Acret removed the previous video from his Gab account that showed Acret throwing GDL hate speech flyers from a moving vehicle. However, once Acret learned that A News Café was aware of his Gab page, he stopped posting content on Gab and started to post more on Odysee.
Protesting in front of LGBTQ+ Pride Month Event
Acret’s most recent hate activity occurred on June 14, when he and at least one unidentified accomplice protested in front of the Drag Storybook Hour held at the Chico Women’s Club. Acret posted on Odysee a 17-minute-long video of the incident.
Acret and his friend who helped record the event were both equipped with body cams.
The men’s body-cam surveillance shows several unidentified members of the LGBTQ+ community and its allies challenge Acret and his friend outside the Chico Women’s Club property. The individuals who confronted Acret and his friend, most of whom were wearing medical safety masks, blocked Acret’s access to the event with their bodies and pro-LGBTQ+ signs.
In that video, Acret can be seen carrying a sign with an anti-LGBTQ+ message as he and his friend repeatedly hurl verbal attacks upon the LGBTQ+ community, who in turn refer to Acret and his helper as Nazis.
Based on the neo-Nazi content Acret has repeatedly shared on social media, it is unclear why he would be upset with being called a Nazi.
In the video, Acret’s friend is seeing arguing with the LGBTQ+ crowd, and said God made them, and they are either a man or a woman.
“You people have something wrong in your soul” and “you guys are child abusers” said Acret’s friend. Acret was also seen in the video trying to handout GDL hate speech flyers. Nobody took one from Acret’s hand.
The members of the community who confronted Acret and his friend repeatedly asked Acret and his friend to leave. As the confrontation escalated, the group fortified their barrier by using their hand-made pro-LGBTQ+ signs. In that manner the group refused to be intimidated. They pushed Acret and his friend down the sidewalk toward the Vallombrosa and Mangrove avenues.
Acret and his friend pushed back with their own signs, but it was not enough. Acret and his friend were outnumbered and out-powered by the group that showed up to confront them.
Toward the end of the video, Acret can be heard saying that he was pepper sprayed by someone. Acret can also be seen violently ripping away two posters held by two of the individuals who confronted Acret and his friend.
“White Power Sign Rippin”
Acret’s Odysee social media video of the confrontation against the LGBTQ+ group included a segment where Acret ripped some signs away from people , with the title “White Power Sign Rippin”.
The act of ripping two pro-LGBTQ+ signs from two people’s hands, after targeting the event because it was a pro-LGBTQ+ event could very well violate California’s hate crime law.
According to section (b) of California’s hate crime law, “No person, whether or not acting under color of law, shall knowingly deface, damage, or destroy the real or personal property of any other person for the purpose of intimidating or interfering with the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to the other person by the Constitution or laws of this state or by the Constitution or laws of the United States, in whole or in part because of one or more of the actual or perceived characteristics of the victim listed in subdivision”.
Acret drops flyers in parking lot after confrontation
After Acret and his friend were confronted by the LGBTQ+ community and its supporters outside of the Chico Women’s Club, Acret proceeded to insert anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech fkyers onto the windshields of dozens of vehicles parked in the Safeway parking lot on Mangrove Avenue, just down the street from the Chico Women’s Club.
From footage captured on Acret’s body camera and posted on Odysee, he is seen distributing flyers in the Safeway parking lot, and can be heard saying that he was distributing the flyers because he was pepper sprayed earlier that day.
Continued distribution of hate speech flyers
Acret has continued to distribute hate speech flyers throughout Chico. Most recently, on June 16, Acret’s video on Odysee shows him driving while throwing flyers from his pickup’s open window. Street signs and homes seen in the video indicate that it was filmed in the South Campus and Barber neighborhoods just south of the Chico State campus.
The video shared by Acret identifies the vehicle he was driving as his early 1990s Nissan extended cab pickup. According to publicly accessible content on his Instagram account, Acret acquired the truck in April of 2022. The truck is white and has a gray decal down the side. The truck’s wheels are stock chrome Nissan wheels, and a chrome grill. There are running boards beneath the truck’s doors.
The video Acret shared on social media that show him throwing hate speech flyers from his vehicle included still shots of GDL flyers. At the video’s conclusion, it shows Acret blow-torching the flag of Israel and the rainbow flag Acret had previously shared on social media with the word “gas”.
California’s hate crime law says that in order for the distribution of hate speech flyers to be considered a hate crime, an act of violence or the threat of violence must be associated with the distribution of the flyers.
Acret’s radical activism continues to escalate. From Acret’s social media accounts he has used comments associated with violence upon a Jewish person, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
What’s more, when Acret attended the Chico LGBTQ+ event he ripped posters from the hands of two people, which destroyed the posters. He also verbally attacked members of the LGBTQ+ community. Lastly, Acret has also continued to distribute hate speech flyers as recently as this past weekend.
Law enforcement conundrum
Law enforcement officials, such as the Chico Police Department, are faced with the challenge of determining the significance of Acret’s activities over the last several months. If CPD determines that hate crime charges are not an option, the CPD could also decide to charge Acret with littering.
A News Café reached out several times to CPD for response for comment, but never received return calls.
Examples from across the United States show that it is rare to uncover the identity of those responsible for the distribution of hate speech flyers. Acret’s identity has been uncovered, however, and it turns out he is involved in more than just the distribution of flyers. How will the CPD react to thiis ongoing and developing situation that only seems to be escalating?
Meanwhile, Twitter has taken Acret’s posts seriously enough that the social media platform posted a message on Acret’s Twitter account that said it’s “temporarily unavailable because it violates the Twitter Media Policy”.
