Eggs, Anti-Semitic Note Follow Black Lives Matter Banner: Rockville Police

(Updated at 4:45 p.m.) ROCKVILLE, MD — Rockville Police are investigating what it calls a hate crime targeted at a couple who hung a Black Lives Matter banner from her condominium. In possible retaliation, her car was vandalized and an anti-Semitic note left on it, officers say.

Police were called Saturday to the 600 block of Azalea Drive, where a 30-year-old woman reported she and her husband had hung a large “Black Lives Matter” banner from the front of her condo earlier in the week. The condo association told the resident to remove the banner, which she did on Friday night.

The woman said that sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, someone threw eggs at their vehicle, wrapped the tree in front of the condo in toilet paper and left a note on the windshield of the car. The note included references and symbols of anti-Semitic hatred, police said.

Mikey Franklin told WTOP he is pleased the department is investigating the motive behind the note.

“My wife and I were targeted, as Jews, using anti-Semitic imagery and words, but were targeted because we support Black Lives Matter,” said Franklin. “I think that’s an important distinction.”

The note refers to 2016 murders of police officers in Dallas and protests in Austin, Texas, and includes a drawing of a star of David Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany, along with a swastika.

“Your lack of care and racism is very annoying and disgraceful and for this we would like to award you a gold star. Enjoy the mayhem,” the note says.

Franklin has been an activist for several causes, including Jewish Voice For Peace and Fair Pay Campaign.

"If this is happening in liberal, diverse, and heavily Jewish Montgomery County, MD, you can bet that it's happening everywhere else," Franklin said Saturday on Twitter.

"Rockville is a very diverse community, and the Rockville City Police Department remains committed to providing the highest levels of police services regardless of ethnic background, gender, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, age, cultural group or immigration status," the police department said on Facebook.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call the Rockville City Police Department Criminal Investigation Unit at 240-314-8938.