JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – White supremacists targeted a Southside neighborhood over the weekend, leaving their hate speech behind in letters that they left in the front yards of dozens of houses.
Locals said they don’t want this kind of hate speech being passed out in their diverse neighborhood, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office confirmed it is looking into the incident.
Surveillance video captured the driver of a black four-door Subaru sedan throwing an object out his passenger side window and into the yard of just one of dozens of houses inside the Riverbrook at Glen Kernan neighborhood.
“And it says, ‘Wake up white man!’ And I said, ‘What is that?’” said a neighbor, who did not wish to be identified.
That neighbor calls the letter left in a plastic bag with rocks white supremacist propaganda meant to sew division and hate.
“My wife is Asian, and upon seeing it again, it’s offensive, and I guess they hit the whole neighborhood. I thought only a couple of houses have them,” said a Southside resident named Tom. “You get idiots everywhere in my opinion.”
The letter says, in part, “Wake up white man! Your race is being replaced. The great replacement theory is not a theory it is fact. Stop race mixing.” It goes on to say, “Start having white children. White man created civilization and everything good in it.” And it concludes by saying, “We must secure the existence of our people and the future for white children.”
“Just stupid people, just pure idiocy,” Tom said. “I cannot fathom to think about it.”
News4JAX learned residents were so angered by the letters that they contacted JSO on Saturday night. Police responded and made attempts to track the person responsible down.
“Somewhere around 10 or 11 o’clock, police came by with flashlights looking for any of these baggies that are remaining,” said the neighbor, who wanted to remain anonymous.
The I-TEAM obtained footage on Monday, sharing it with JSO officers late Monday afternoon. According to witnesses, the person in the black Subaru was wearing a mask. Red brake calipers can be seen in the wheel wells of the vehicle — a distinguishing characteristic locals hope will lead to some kind of police intervention.
“There’s no place for something like that today. It’s terrible, makes me feel not safe in our neighborhood that someone would be feeling that way and putting it in our front yards,” said the anonymous neighbor.
As the Sheriff’s Office looks into the incident, an officer told News4JAX that if there was any crime committed while passing out this literature or as a result of this literature, charges could be filed.
Notably, race, religion, ethnicity, and sexual orientation are protected under federal hate crime laws in Florida.
Anyone who recognizes the black car, which had tinted windows in addition to the red brake calipers, is asked to contact JSO.