First Amendment at center of fight over anti-Semitic flyers
By Jane Musgrave
Days after a Wisconsin man was cited over anti-Semitic flyers tossed into yards in West Palm Beach, officials in his home state last week dropped 23 similar charges he faced for distributing vitriolic tracts in Kenosha neighborhoods.
The decision, which angered faith leaders in the town on the shores of Lake Michigan, illustrates the difficulty of punishing people for what few would describe as anything other than hate speech.
Even 57-year-old Jeffrey Kidder’s attorney calls the flyers that his client distributed “obnoxious and repugnant.”
But, Kenosha defense attorney Terry Rose said, under the U.S. Constitution, Kidder is free to distribute leaflets to express his political and religious views — however abhorrent.
“These are basic constitutional rights,” he said, explaining why city officials agreed to drop the littering charges. “The distribution of unpopular trash is constitutionally protected speech.”
With Palm Beach County becoming a target for anti-Semitic venom unleashed under the leadership of a California man who recently moved to West Palm, local police and State Attorney Dave Aronberg are trying to thread a very thin needle and punish those behind the attacks.
In the last two months, two historic neighborhoods in West Palm Beach along with streets in Palm Beach and Atlantis have been showered with baggies containing flyers that falsely blame Jewish people for the slave trade and the country’s “COVID-19 agenda.” The foul-mouthed crew behind the flyers hurled racist, homophobic and obscene insults at police and homeowners who dared to confront them, as seen in videos they posted online to raise money.
A swastika was painted on a sign at Century Village west of Boca Raton and, famously, the Nazi symbol was projected onto the AT&T building in downtown West Palm Beach.
County and West Palm Beach commissioners scrambled this month to pass laws that make it a crime, punishable by a 60-day jail sentence and $500 fine, to project images onto buildings without the owner’s permission.
But, no law prevents the distribution of offensive literature. So, police used the only tool they had available to stop those behind the flyers: They cited them for littering and traffic violations, such as obstructing traffic. Littering is punishable by a maximum $100 fine.
West Palm Beach police spokesman Mike Jachles said police are well aware of the men’s First Amendment rights. So, he said, officers had to find alternatives.
“We enforce what we can,” he said.
Criminal charges hard to find
Kidder and 46-year-old Bradenton resident Brian Hulliger were given littering citations on March 11 after the disturbing packets were thrown in yards in West Palm Beach’s Old Northwood neighborhood, Jachles said. So far, the two haven’t been summoned to court.
However, three others — Nicholas Bysheim of Maryland along with David Yung Kim and ringleader Jon Minadeo Jr., who both list their addresses as a shopping center on Okeechobee Boulevard — have been.
In Bysheim’s case, Aronberg went beyond citations to apply the criminal code. He also charged the 33-year-old Bysheim with resisting arrest without violence for refusing to show his identification to an Atlantis police officer. If convicted, Bysheim faces a maximum year-long jail sentence and $1,000 fine.
“Although distributing messages of hate is not illegal, it is a crime to refuse to provide identification to a law enforcement officer investigating a littering violation,” Aronberg said in a statement. “We will continue to hold individuals accountable who violate our laws.”
Bysheim, who also faces littering and traffic citations in connection with the leafleting in West Palm, Atlantis and Palm Beach, has made it clear he plans to tear a page out of Kidder’s successful playbook.
In court papers, he says the resisting arrest charge is bogus. “My conduct observed or known by Sergeant (Michael) Dombeck at the time of the alleged incident was protected by First Amendment activity," Bysheim wrote in a motion to dismiss the charge.
The self-styled lawyer also attached a document prepared by the National Alliance, spelling out why distributing hate-filled flyers is legal. The now largely defunct group, dedicated to removing Jews and minorities from the country, was once considered the nation’s most dangerous neo-Nazi organization, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
After a March 3 court hearing, the mop-topped Bysheim told local television news crews he had an “awakening” after the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol.
“I was betrayed by this man who sent the FBI after everyone for supporting him,” he said, holding up a paper with former President Trump’s name on it. “I found out what Jesus Christ meant.” He described “anti-Semitism” as “a made-up word.”
‘It’s our right’
Kim, 60, who also claimed a Pittsburgh address, has pleaded not guilty to a littering citation he received from Palm Beach police. He also has been charged with other infractions by West Palm Beach police.
Minadeo, 40, faces littering citations in connection with leafleting in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach and has his first court appearance on April 5.
Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood tweeted this video of the West Palm Beach police downtown last month at the scene of a neo-Nazi response.
In the videos the group recorded of their encounters with police, Minadeo makes it clear any charges will be challenged on First Amendment grounds.
“It’s our right,” he tells West Palm Beach police when confronted on March 18 as he and others were throwing flyers from a rented truck in Flamingo Park, a historic neighborhood south of downtown. “We’re going to see you in court about you stopping us in our rights.”
During the obscenity-laced tirade, Minadeo insists he is on the right side of the law and can’t be cited for littering.
“I’m going to take your pension,” he tells one officer. “You’re never going to be able to work in law enforcement again because you’re ADL — actively conspiring against people’s rights.”
He was referring to the Anti-Defamation League, one of his most frequent targets. Minadeo, who was arrested in Poland in 2022 after posing with anti-Semitic banners outside the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, named his group the Goyim Defense League. The name, referring to a Yiddish term for a non-Jew, was yet another jab at the Jewish civil rights organization, ADL officials have said.
Police showed no emotion as Minadeo and Bysheim peppered them with racist and ethnic slurs.
“Steal our First Amendment right, you fat (N-word),” Minadeo tells one officer.
Bysheim told County Judge Marni Bryson he couldn’t find a lawyer to represent him so he had to represent himself. But, during the Flamingo Park confrontation, he and Minadeo insist they have legal muscle behind them.
“We have lawyers that would love suing the (expletive) out of you crooked (expletives),” Minadeo says.
High court ruling favors free speech
Whether Bysheim, Minadeo and others in the group will beat the littering charges on First Amendment grounds remains to be seen. But, civil libertarians said, decades-old rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court are in their favor.
The high court has consistently upheld the rights of people to express their political or religious views by distributing offensive literature, said Rose, the Wisconsin lawyer.
One exception might be if homeowners had “no soliciting” signs posted in their yards, warning people not to drop off leaflets, said James Green, a longtime attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Assistant State Attorney Vanessa Arrieta said even without such signs, the high court has ruled that people have the right to be left alone in their homes.
“(Bysheim’s) method of disseminating his ideas was to thrust it upon a captive audience by littering flyers and plastic bags into people's yards, regardless of who was a willing recipient or not," she wrote. "This goes contrary to many Supreme Court decisions aimed at protecting the unwilling listener in the sanctuary of his or her home."
But Rose said filing littering charges against those who distributed the flyers could also be seen as selective enforcement.
After all, businesses, religious groups, politicians and others aren’t cited for littering when they leave unwanted material on people’s doors or in their yards, he said.
“This is not littering any more than Ron DeSantis running for governor of the state and throwing literature on people’s porches,” he said. “Some may disagree with his views but he’s not littering; he’s promoting his candidacy.”
A long-term solution will be the passage of a bill sponsored by state Rep. Mike Caruso, R-West Palm Beach, Aronberg said.
The measure now winding its way through the Legislature would make it a crime to publicly display images that promote intolerance, such as a swastika. It would outlaw the distribution of literature “with religious or ethnic animus.” Those who harass others for their religious or ethnic heritage could also face maximum five-year prison sentences.
The proposal also would beef up littering laws. A person could face a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable by a year-long jail sentence if the distribution of offensive flyers leads to littering.
Until the measure is passed, Aronberg said his hands are tied.
“We can’t yet prosecute individuals for distributing hateful messages until legislation is passed that can survive Constitutional challenges,” he said.
In the meantime, Minadeo and his crew show no sign of stopping.
Religious leaders in Wisconsin told the Kenosha News that last week’s dismissal of the littering charges against Kidder emboldened haters. For the first time in months, they said anti-Semitic leafleting resumed.
You’re reading a story from Stet Media Group. Support Palm Beach County journalism in the public interest with a free or paid subscription.