WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg hopes the sentencing of a man who was found guilty of littering antisemitic flyers will send a message to others.
"They're not part of our community except to try to do harm in our community, although one, the leader of the group, will now be a resident of our community for the next 30 days," Aronberg said Thursday.
His message comes one day after neo-Nazi propagandist Jon Minadeo was sentenced to 30 days in the Palm Beach County jail.
West Palm Beach
Neo-Nazi found guilty after distributing antisemitic material
It's a sigh of relief for the Jewish community in Palm Beach County.
"This shows a determination to deal with it," Josephine Gon, executive director of community affairs for the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, said. "And we're very grateful to the legislators, to the police force, to our state attorney for actually acting on this."
West Palm Beach resident Humberto Lazo said some of Minadeo's antisemitic literature was tossed on his lawn. He hopes future neo-Nazi propagandists receive greater consequences.
"I hope they do more than that because, literally, this is happening more often than ever," Lazo said.
Minadeo's offense missed the passage of HB269 by a matter of weeks. The bill was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in direct response to hate crimes in the state. The new law makes hate crimes a felony.
"The next time they get arrested, it just won't be for a misdemeanor," Aronberg said. "It could be for a felony and it could be for the contents of their literature."
Aronberg hopes this sentencing will send the message that hate crimes will not be tolerated in the county.
"We will not be intimidated by antisemitism, we will push back strongly and we will continue to do what we did in this case," Aronberg said.
Gon added: "The lesson from this is you're not welcome here."
