Full Notification

On September 19, 2022, at around 9:30 AM, we began receiving reports from our community members about the distribution of antisemitic flyers to residences within the City and in the unincorporated areas of Novato. The flyers were placed in plastic sandwich bags and found in the driveways of residences in the south end of our City near Ignacio Blvd. and in unincorporated areas of Bel Marin Keys Blvd. Officers responded to investigate and found that the flyers contain antisemitic hate speech and were not determined to be a violation of the law. This is being classified as a hate motivated incident.

A hate motivated incident is an action, or a behavior motivated by hate but legally protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of expression. This can include distribution of materials with hate messages.

At the Novato Police Department, we work in partnership with our community to stand up against all forms of hate expression and protect our community from hate crime. We have partnered with Not In Out Town to encourage victims of hate crime to report incidents promptly and to show that we do not tolerate these types of incidents in our community. We have added an online reporting tool to make it easier and more comfortable for victims to come forward and share information about hate activity in our community. We also offer a pamphlet for community members with information and resources about hate crimes and hate motivated incidents.

Chief Johnson stated, “The safety and wellbeing of our community members is our priority. The Novato Police Department takes matters of hate incidents and hate crimes very seriously and we are committed to investigating these incidents fully.”

You can report a hate incident directly to an officer by contacting our dispatch center at 415-897-4361. You can also visit our website and report an incident online via our online reporting system, https://www.novato.org/government/police-department/report-a-crime?locale=en

If you have any information about this incident, please contact the Novato Police Department. Please reference Novato Police Department case number NP22-3449.