50 vehicles parked in Lincoln Park targeted by antisemitic flyers

A three-block stretch of North Magnolia Avenue was the target of hateful and offensive messaging on Tuesday.

Some left cardboard flyers with antisemitic remarks on the windshields of roughly 50 vehicles parked on the street.

“You know, all day I’ve been going back and forth between anger, frustration and sadness,” said neighbor and President of the Sheffield Neighborhood Association, Brian Comer. 

It was an upsetting discovery for residents like Brian Comer. He is standing up for his Jewish neighbors and calling for a halt to all the hate.

“From a neighborhood standpoint, we are happy to be the center point of that conversation because we’re going to let people know that is not acceptable here in our neighborhood, and it’s not acceptable anywhere in our city,” Comer added.

Alderman Brian Hopkins started getting phone calls Tuesday morning. He said he immediately contacted Chicago police.

Hopkins is calling for the hateful incident, targeting property but not people, to be taken as seriously as a hate crime.

“There seems to be an intentional effort here to make our Jewish neighbors frightened and uncomfortable. That’s what the purpose of this is, to sow the seeds of fear,” Ald. Hopkins explained. “We think that rises to the level of a criminal act and we’re asking to the police to investigate, and they’ve told me they already are.”

Now the search is on for who is responsible. Ald. Hopkins is asking neighbors to share any home security video that may have captured the suspects.

“It wasn’t one person who did that, it was several, so we think some video may give us some indication of who was behind this,” he said.

This isn’t the first time antisemitic flyers have been left on vehicles in Chicago. Police are investigating if the flyers left on vehicles in Lincoln Park Tuesday are connected to flyers previously left on vehicles in the 48^th and 43^rd Wards. An investigation into the incidents is ongoing.