Reader Report: Corvallis Hit Hard with Hate Stickers

We have all seen them. Corvallis seems slathered in stickers calling for the destruction of Israel and Abrahamic holy site these days. Now, one of our readers, Jaron Rosenau, has documented the spread of these hate messages across the local landscape and contacted Corvallis Police and several City officials.

Below, is his letter to those officials and us, then our comments, and after that a postscript in which Rosenau describes his callback from the police department.

Rosenau’s Correspondence

I am writing to request an escalated, coordinated abatement and enforcement response to an ongoing series of hateful stickers that I have documented, between June 22nd and September 3rd, across the City of Corvallis, including on City infrastructure, USPS property, and OSU facilities. The stickers read: “Fuck Israel, Nuke Jerusalem” or “Fuck Abraham, Nuke Jerusalem” or “Fuck Israel, Nuke Tel Aviv”, in addition to one that says, “Fuck Israel, Free Palestine”. I have filed a report with the Corvallis Police Department: CPD Case #2025-03710 regarding the first few that I found, in addition to alerting OSU Public Safety about them.

Scope and persistence

I have personally recorded 19 occurrences to date over the last 2.5 months, and although the stickers I have documented have been removed, by me or by others notified, they continue to reappear at new locations. The following are the locations where the stickers have been found. I will attach the photos and a CSV file noting the locations, timestamps and photo filename as attachments:

• Corvallis Community Center – adjacent to Benton County Health
• Fred Meyer – south parking-lot light pole
• Clodfelter’s – city bike-rack pillar
• Central Park – street-sign post (SW 7th & SW Madison)
• Corvallis-Benton County Public Library – south bike-rack pillar (1 of 2)
• Corvallis-Benton County Public Library – south bike-rack pillar (2 of 2)
• Corvallis-Benton County Public Library – north stop-sign post
• OSU – one-way sign post (Campus Way & Waldo)
• American Dream Pizza Downtown – parking-lot bike-rack pillar (1 of 2)
• American Dream Pizza Downtown – parking-lot bike-rack pillar (2 of 2)
• NW 15th & NW Jackson – telephone pole
• OSU – light pole (McNary Field)
• OSU – GEM bike-rack pillar
• Starbucks Coffee – bike-rack pillar (SW 4th & SW Madison)
• Corvallis Museum – bike-rack pillar
• USPS – light pole
• Taco Vino – stop-sign post
• Sugar J’s Ice Cream – bike-rack pillar
• Chevron Stock Market – telephone pole

Why I believe this warrants coordinated action.

1. Public safety and civil rights concerns.The phrase “Nuke Jerusalem” or “Nuke Tel Aviv” is an explicit call to mass violence and, combined with “Fuck Israel” or “Fuck Abraham,” reasonably targets a protected class (religion and/or national origin). Under Oregon’s bias-crime framework, vandalism or interference with property motivated by a target’s perceived religion or national origin can constitute bias crime in the second degree (ORS 166.155); incidents involving threat or injury elevate to first degree (ORS 166.165). I am not making a charging decision, only emphasizing that this conduct is plausibly within Oregon’s bias-crime and bias-incident regimes and should be documented and addressed as such.
2. Inter-jurisdictional properties.Incidents involve USPS property (federal jurisdiction), City facilities, and OSU locations. This requires coordination among CPD, OSU DPS, Corvallis City facilities, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).
3. City policy context.The City Council is presently considering an “Investment Resolution” that references the American Friends Service Committee’s investigate.info database for screening (commonly associated with BDS divestment campaigns). Staff delivered an analysis memorandum for the September 2, 2025 Council meeting, and the draft resolution itself cites the AFSC resource. I raise this only to underscore the timeliness for a clear, public stance from the City against vandalism and bias incidents, irrespective of any policy debates. I cannot prove a causal link between the policy discussion and the stickerings; my request concerns unlawful and harmful conduct in public spaces.

Requests

1. A) Escalated abatement & directed patrols.Please coordinate expedited removal and consider directed patrols or targeted camera review (where available and lawful) around the affected sites. I ask CPD to assess whether pattern-of-practice analysis (times, corridors, materials) could guide prevention.
2. B) Bias-incident documentation.Please ensure these events are documented as potential bias incidents/crimes, consistent with Oregon DOJ guidance, and refer victims/witnesses to the Bias Response Hotline. I have already reported to the Hotline, so these incidents are counted.
3. C) USPIS coordination.For stickerings on USPS property, please coordinate with USPIS.
4. D) OSU campus coordination.For on-campus sites, I request that CPD and OSU DPS coordinate notifications and responses to ensure timely removal and, if possible, identification of the responsible party under campus regulations and applicable law.
5. E) Public communication.I ask that the City issue a short public notice affirming that (i) vandalism and bias incidents will be promptly abated and investigated, (ii) community members should report sightings to CPD, OSU DPS (for campus), and the Oregon DOJ Bias Hotline.

Attachments I will include:

1. An incident log (location, date/time, and photo filenames).
2. The scaled down photos (I can provide originals upon request).

Thank you for your attention and for coordinating a swift response.

Jaron Rosenau

The Advocate’s Viewpoint

Nobody is going to actually nuke Jerusalem because of these stickers, but they are clearly hateful. Images of melted bodies in the aftermath of Hiroshima surface. Jerusalemites living everyday lives and instantly evaporated froth forward.

And closer to home, here in Corvallis, these stickers are an unrequested reminder to our community’s Judaic and Jewish people that they have neighbors that hate them.

But is this what free speech looks like. Maybe, maybe not.

The community gets to make decisions about the time, place and manner of free speech, but it cannot, or least probably should not, make too many decisions about content.

Anyone that would like can attend a City Council meeting. But outside of the public comment period, folks that blurt out without restraint will eventually find themselves removed, and we think rightfully so. Likewise, you can say whatever you want on a public street. But scream and holler in from of someone’s house at 2 am, and you’ll eventually get yourself hauled away. Threaten someone with just words, you still may face criminal charges.

So, what about these light poles, or at least the publicly owned or permitted ones. Unlike newspapers or social media platforms we may not like, we the community are mandated to pay for publicly owned infrastructure. We are also largely forced to see those structures; it’s not like we can just turn the channel.

And there is a required agnosticism to allowing public property to be used this way. Unlike the private sphere, if a public space is open for expressions of adulation towards a mayor, it must equally be open to the mayor’s critics. Case law is replete on this matter. If Life After Hate gets to post on the park bench, so does the American Nazi Party.

Maybe we as a community could restrict posting in these spaces to community events, but it’s the same rabbit hole. Potentially we could require a permit to post, and make the applicant’s information public online, but does anyone really want to do that.

So, we find ourselves ambivalent.

We like the idea of an upstart band or poetry workshop freely grabbing some attention. Some of us like the vibe of a utility box slathered in colorful flyers. We’ve posted onto these structures ourselves. But maybe things have changed.

An attention economy has taken hold. Social media and search companies have spent billions to understand what the human psyche will do. And with trillions of dollars on the table, the race to do whatever it takes has proved to have no limit. Basically, whoever or whatever keeps the most bodies and wallets engaged, wins.

One outcome of this is algorithms that push people politically, left and right, into increasingly extreme and even warped and hateful dialectics. Fact resistance is more virulent than ever. The idea is to keep you worked-up, or in Silicon Valley speak, engaged. Politicians and influencers, seeing what these platforms now reward, have too often been willing to oblige.

All of this has changed how people see one another and society generally. It has also changed the accepted social norms for what individuals communicate publicly.

So, does Corvallis want these new norms to spill over onto its publicly owned infrastructure. Do we relinquish our publicly owned spaces to the same lowest denominators of what has become the online environment.

Do we care how Corvallis’ Judaic and Jewish people see these stickers. How would we feel if the hate was pointed at our community’s LGBTQ+ folks. And how would a stranger, a visitor see these stickers.

Allow all these flyers and stickers or not. The community can decide that Public Works needs to remove what’s already posted and that police need to cite anyone that posts anything new. In fact, there may already be ordinances in place that are just not being enforced.

No matter the decision, something will be lost. In general, however, we think calls to nuke folks needn’t be slathered all around town.

One last note, and it’s encouraging. A small slowly growing number of people are spending less time with online platforms and media, generally. They’ve become either frustrated or bored. And in 2024 and 2025, Americans spent about 6% less of their time with online media then during the preceding two years. We think that’s a healthy trend, even if we ourselves are an online outlet.

Postscript

Rosenau initially emailed us last Wednesday, on Sept. 9. On Sunday, September 14 he emailed to say, “A Corvallis Police captain called me on September 11th, (I didn’t catch his name), he said because the stickers seem to be random and not targeted to one individual or location, it does not rise to the level of bias crime. He said they have to walk a line between 1^st amendment and bias and that if I see them I am legally allowed and encouraged to take them down. Or to use the new Public Works online tool, Corvallis Connect, to report it and have them taken down if I feel uncomfortable.”

The opinions in this post may or may not reflect the views of The Corvallis Advocate, or its management, staff, supporters and advertisers.