MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD)- Police are investigating after homeowners in Mount Pleasant awoke Tuesday to find flyers containing antisemtic messages littering their driveways.
The leaflets were distributed across several neighborhoods, including Carolina Park, Charleston National, and Tupelo, according to reports.
“It tore a hole through me that in this day and age you can find something like this and someone is taking their time out in the middle of the night to throw this in your driveway,” homeowner Gary Johnson said. “I mean, really, here we are in Mount Pleasant and it really frightens me.”
Sgt. Ashley Croy with the Mount Pleasant Police Department (MPPD) said the incident was document and an investigation is currently underway.
The flyers were first reported to law enforcement on Tuesday morning, the day after the Jewish religious holiday of Yom Kippur.
There is no place for hate in our community,” Mayor Will Hayne wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “To whoever distributed the vulgar, anti-Semitic flyers overnight (at the time of Yom Kippur, no less) in our community, you failed. We are responding with love & concern for those you targeted and with disgust for your kind of hatred.”
According to data collected by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), antisemitic incidents surged by 193% across South Carolina in 2022. Much of that uptick, the ADL found, can be attributed to “high volume increases in organized white supremacist propaganda activity,” including the use of fliers, posters, stickers, banners, and graffiti that convey antisemitic views.
“It’s a violation,” Director of Educational Initiatives for Charleston Jewish Federation, Natanya Miller said. “Your home is where you’re safe and then to have something like this happen — no matter what — it feels like a violation.”
Anyone who received one of these pamphlets or has video of the incident is asked to contact MPPD at 843-743-7200.
This story is developing and will be updated.
