June 25, 2006 – Police continue to send additional patrol cars to a University City neighborhood after four families found threatening letters on their car windshields. One family that received the threatening letters was also targeted by homemade bombs.
The neighborhood is home to a number of Orthodox Jewish families and is located north of Delmar Blvd. between Old Bonhomme and North and South roads.
Major Ernest Green of the University City Police Department said that the four letters were placed on car windshields late June 6 or in the early morning hours of June 7. The photo-copied letters were signed “The People,” and stated, “We are the people your mother warned you about.” Below the signature appeared the number 666. Of the families targeted, three were Jewish and one was Catholic.
Green said there are currently no leads in the case linking an individual or individuals to the letters. The homemade bombs were submitted to the county criminal lab and are currently undergoing testing for further analysis.
Community leaders, residents, and the local media have suggested this activity is anti-Semitic but Karen Aroesty, regional directior of the Anti-Defamation League, has cautioned the community to gather more evidence before concluding that the threats intentionally targeted Jewish residents.
“The nature of hate crimes and biased activity is anxiety provoking, not just for the people who receive the letters, but for the whole community. The reverberations can be significant,” Aroesty said. “University City is a diverse place. Just because it happened to be on a street where there are more Jewish families, doesn’t mean Jews were intentionally targeted.”
Questions as to the nature of the crime aside, a larger and perhaps more unsettling question remains: Why did the community and media learn of these incidences over a week after they occurred? Rabbi Yosef Landa, chairmen of the St. Louis Rabbinical Council, expressed concern that the police only increased patrolling of the neighborhood after the story broke in local newspapers.
“I was somewhat surprised that the incidences took place the sixth of June and that the leadership of the community didn’t become aware of it until ten days later,” said Landa. “This is of concern to me because if you are not aware, you can’t be vigilant-people need to be informed.”
For Aroesty though, providing the information demanded by the community does not look like a simple task.
“People want these crimes to be solved; communities don’t want to feel unsettled. There is urgency about wrapping it up into a nice neat package, and that’s not always possible.”
While mystery may still surround the threats, Aroesty thinks that the message that must come out of the incidents is quite clear.
“This is about community building,” she said. “We have to teach our children not to commit these acts, not to regard certain cultures or religions as other, to understand the impact of what their actions and words.”