Fliers depicting Shelby Twp employees as Nazis angers residents

A disturbing flier landed in Shelby Township mailboxes just days before Tuesday's primary election. It shows the township supervisor - depicted as Adolf Hitler - along three trustee candidates and the treasurer - all giving the Nazi salute.

The people in the community found it distasteful and disrespectful, but it may also be criminal.

Shelby Township police chief Robert Shelide called the fliers 'didsgusting and offensive'.

"I call it the way I see it. This is trash. This is poison," Shelide said "I was personally offended when I saw this. I would Compare this to burning the American flag. This is poison."

Shelide launched an investigation into who is responsible for stuffing almost a 1,000 fliers into neighbors mailboxes just hours before election day. The fliers called several city officials and candidates 'brain-washed stooges' and showed them saluting current Shelby township supervisor Rick Stathakis, who was depticed as Hitler.

"How could anyone exploit the Murder of millions of people to win a local election. Are you kidding me?" Stathakis said.

Shelide says complaints about the fliers began Sunday night. Neighbors Said they spotted a black Lincoln SUV driving around and putting them in people's mailboxes.

"That's a violation of the law itself. You can't go into a US mailbox," Shelide said.

Shelide says the name and address printed on the fliers had nothing to do with them and they're working to find out who is behind them and who paid for them but an email address of a trustee candidate was associated with that flier.

"It does seem like Grant Golasa has a hand in this but i can't say how much and we will figure that out," Stathakis said.

Golasa was not available for comment and has reportedly denied any involvement.

"It's very shameful and I'm embarrassed for all of us in shelby twp because it does not represent whow we are," Shelide said. "I apologize that we have these despicable characters in our town spreading this poison in their mailboxes. We're going to get to the bottom of this."

Shelide says even if it is disrespectful and distasteful, there's not much he can do unless he can prove an election law has been violated.