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New Bill Filed to Crack Down on Hate Crimes

Atlantis Police in Palm Beach County arrested 33-year-old Nicholas Bysheim for obstructing a law enforcement officer without violence on Saturday.

Investigators got reports of people in a U-Haul pickup truck tossing antisemitic flyers in the community Saturday. They soon found the truck on South Country Club Drive and saw a man throwing plastic bags with flyers onto people's lawns.

"We can’t stop them from distributing. However, littering is littering. And we wanted to cite him for that. That’s not an arrestable offense. However, when he failed to identify himself so we could issue the citation, that is an arrestable offense," Atlantis Police Chief Robert Mangold told WPBF 25 News.

They soon learned that the suspect is from Maryland. He joined two other people, including the leader of the group Goyim Defense League that weekend.

NGO StopAntisemitism identified the individuals as Nicholas Bysheim and Jon Minadeo. Minadeo is the leader of the white supremacist group, Goyim Defense League (GDL).

"I was concerned that they came into my community; obviously it’s a very quiet, primarily residential community," Mangold said. "We don’t appreciate your hate, don’t want you here."

The flyers that were distributed in Atlantis were the same papers that were tossed in Lake Worth neighborhoods over the weekend.

Investigators say they are also familiar faces behind a similar incident in Boca Raton in early January.

"There was a BOLO (Be on the lookout) put out by Boca Raton PD and GDL...Goyim Defense League...was identified in that BOLO. And those were the same people that we dealt with on this last Saturday evening," Mangold said.

WPBF 25 News reached out to West Palm Beach Police on whether these individuals were also behind the projection of swastikas on the AT&T building in West Palm Beach, and have not yet heard back.

The executive director of the nonprofit, StopAntisemitism, sent WPBF 25 News a statement in part below.

"StopAntisemitism commends the Atlantis Police Department for the arrest of Nicholas Bysheim, member of a dangerous white supremacist group called the Goyim Defense League...Bysheim’s dissemination of antisemitism is threatening and he must be held accountable," Liora Rez responded.

The suspect had been taken to the Palm Beach County jail.

"He was released two hours after we transported him there, on his own recognizance. It’s kind of ironic because in the morning, PBSO (Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office) employees found that this hate literature has been distributed on their vehicles," Mangold said.

And in order to crack down on antisemitic incidents like these, Palm Beach County leaders had a roundtable discussion Tuesday afternoon. Officials gathered to have a conversation on what laws or ordinances can be in place to prevent antisemitic cases from rising.

Palm Beach County Mayor Gregg Weiss announced that Republican State Rep. Mike Caruso introduced new legislation that could make these types of incidents punishable up to third-degree felonies, including broadcasting on people's buildings without permission and anti-littering laws.

"This is an unprecedented level of a slew of antisemitic events that have happened in such a short period of time. But it’s important to note that these are coming from individuals that are not from Palm Beach County," Michael Hoffman, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, said. "We feel deeply appreciative that our elected officials and law enforcement are coming out strong in solidarity with the Jewish community to pass this legislation and ordinances to say that no individual has the ability or right to come in and make expressions of hate, to threaten, to intimidate participants and members of the Jewish community."

"These people are not coming from Palm Beach County. They’re coming from outside of Palm Beach County to bring their hate to us. And we are a diverse, peaceful, loving community, welcoming community, but we don’t welcome their hate," Weiss said.

"We’re not going to let them get away so easily. We’re going to work to change the laws, we’re going to work to see what we can do to existing laws, and we’re going to come together as a community," Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg said.