Flyers with racially charged hate messages were left on cars in the Hazel Dell area north of Vancouver on Sunday morning.
The Columbian received photos of the flyers from a resident of the neighborhood near Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School. The flyers with hate messages targeting Black, Hispanic and Jewish people were pinned on car windshields Sunday morning.
The flyers included QR codes and a website to download more flyers of the same type.
Nickeia Hunter, vice president of NAACP Vancouver, said incidents like this don’t surprise her.
“There is no sense of protection for the people who are Black and brown in the community,” Hunter said.
In Washington, hate crimes are defined as assaults or threats that lead to property damage or injury due to someone’s race, religion, skin color, nationality, sexuality, disability, gender expression or identity.
Clark County Sheriff’s office Sgt. Scott Gilberti said he is not aware of any recently reported hate-speech incidents in Clark County. The resident who sent the photos to The Columbian asked not to be identified and did not reach out to law enforcement about the flyers.
According to data from the FBI, there were 530 reports of hate crimes in Washington in 2022. That year, the Vancouver Police Department reported 113 hate crimes to the FBI.
“I think first and foremost, without knowing what it actually says, it’s impossible for us to evaluate if it meets that free speech threshold or if it meets the criteria for hate speech,” Gilberti said. “I encourage people to reach out to us, but know in doing so that things like this may fall under that free speech category.”
Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced June 25 that Clark County was chosen to participate in the pilot program for a new hotline to report hate crimes and combat violence. The hotline will also offer other resources such as counseling.
The hotline will be operational in Clark, King and Spokane counties by July 1, 2025, and will expand to the rest of the state by 2027.
