Swastika leaflets dropped outside Ariana Grande concert by drone

Hundreds of Ariana Grande fans found themselves bombarded by leaflets covered in swastikas as they queued to see the singer in Sacramento, California.

The anti-media messages, bearing a Nazi symbol, began raining down on the pop star's audience as they congregated outside the city's Golden 1 Center stadium on Friday evening prior to seeing the latest leg of her Sweetener tour.

They were apparently dropped by a high-flying drone.

The leaflets were also pelted on attendees of Sacramento State University's annual "Bites on the Bridge" fundraising dinner at the Guy West Bridge, according to student newspaper The State Hornet.

Local journalist Dominic Vitiello posted pictures on Twitter of the flyers, featuring slogans like "Stop the Press!!!" and "Warning! Stop the TV whore takeover", echoing President Donald Trump's strong anti-press rhetoric.

One explicitly repeated the president's battle cry of "Fake News!", typically used to denigrate the likes of The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN.

Another directed readers to "The Red X Society" and contained the phrase "Tracy Mapes 2018", a reference to a 57-year-old Sacramento man who had been arrested after dropping nuisance messages by drone over a San Francisco '49ers NFL game in November 2017.

Picked up by Santa Clara Police, Mapes complained at the time:

This isn’t a story about a drone. This is a story about the fabric of American history. The First Amendment.

A former TV cameraman, Mapes attacked the media as an industry "infiltrated by prostitutes and felons" and warned "the government controls the message".

Whether he is to blame this time has yet to be substantiated but Mapes did reference the flyers in a tweet to comedian Billy Crystal.

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