Oct 3, 2007 7:34 pm US/Eastern
Swastikas Turn Up In Long Island Mailboxes
Cops: You Receive An Envelope, Call Police Immediately
ROSLYN (CBS) ―
More messages of hate have popped up out on Long Island.
Nassau County police say swastikas are turning up in mailboxes in several affluent communities.
Photo copies of a story with the words swastika highlighted were found in mailboxes at nine homes.
"This is a facsimile of the envelope that was delivered. Facsimile," Sgt. Anthony Repalone of the Nassau County Police Department said as he showed reporters. "We're conducting forensics on the original."
What someone did was photocopy a news story from a recent edition of the Roslyn News, and mailed or delivered it to nine homes.
The article detailed recent bias incidents. Not only were the words swastika highlighted, but two pink swastikas were drawn on the originals.
The article detailed early September bias graffiti at a synagogue in Plandome, at a Roslyn Estates home, and on a Roslyn school bus. Two alleged white supremacists were arrested, but someone has spread their story.
The envelopes have computer generated address labels. Some envelopes were postmarked, some were not. They were delivered to five villages around Roslyn. Police say seven of the nine recipients are Jewish.
"We don't know why these particular residents were targeted in nine separate incidents," Repalone said.
At the synagogue mentioned in the article, the rabbi is troubled.
"I think this is a conscious targeting of the people," Rabbi Lee Freelander said.
Police say if you receive an envelope like this, postmarked or not, don't handle it. Call the Nassau County police.
Meanwhile, in Suffolk County police are trying to find the vandals who spray painted swastikas on the Hauppauge Middle School.
Police say the symbols -- now cleaned up --- were painted onto trailers on school grounds.
School officials have also reported finding leaflets containing "racial overtones."
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