Westport, CT – Flyers spouting antisemitic propaganda were distributed in a Westport neighborhood last week, according to local police.
Police are asking residents of the Partrick Road area of town to review surveillance footage recorded from Wednesday evening through Thursday and report anything suspicious to the Westport Police Department’s Detective Bureau, Lt. Eric Woods, a spokesperson for the department, said in a news release Monday evening.
Woods said the flyers, placed in plastic baggies weighed down with rice, were discovered in driveways in the affected neighborhood Thursday. While the content of the flyers was “somewhat random and incoherent,” Woods said, it linked Judaism to abortion and contraception.
The flyers were reported to police Monday and have since been seized as evidence, according to Woods. Local officials spoke out against prejudice in the wake of the discovery.
“I am grateful to the (p)olice for managing this latest issue with expediency and professionalism. Westport will use all of its available resources to combat this hate and to strongly message that these statements and sentiments do not have a place here in Westport,” First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker said in the news release. “In collaboration with the CT ADL (Anti-Defamation League), TEAM Westport, and local officials, we will continue to make strides to ensure that Westport is a place where everyone is welcome, and everyone feels that they belong. Safety is always a top priority.”
TEAM Westport is an official town committee tasked with making Westport “increasingly welcoming with respect to race, ethnicity, religion and LGBTQIA+.” Chairman Harold Bailey Jr. also strongly condemned the flyers.
“This hate-filled vitriol is an assault on the fabric and values of every segment of the Westport community,” Bailey said in the release. “We all stand in solidarity as Westporters in our firm rejection of both the message and messenger.”
