Stamford residents woke up on Sunday to find racist propaganda in their yards.
The fliers, distributed by the Nationalist Social Club, called for New England residents to “organize and resist” against non-white people.
The Stamford Police Department said they received around 40 calls about the fliers, which were found in Springdale, Pepper Ridge and lower High Ridge neighborhoods.
According to the Connecticut Anti-Defamation League, there was a 115% increase in white supremacist propaganda in Connecticut last year. Over 200 incidents were reported in the state in 2022.
In comparison, the increase nationally was 38%, almost three times lower than Connecticut’s statistic.
CT ADL Regional Director Stacey Sobel said residents must work together to stop the hate.
“We should not sit idly by while extremists pollute our communities with hateful trash,” Sobel said. “And we should make no mistake, that these activities are coordinated, and they're amplified online. And they continue to increase unless we launch a whole society approach to combat it.”
Sobel said the tactic used in Stamford, a flier — in a bag to keep it dry with rocks to keep it from getting caught in the wind — is common and shows the amount of effort the groups put into spreading their message.
“White supremacists can take a small action and have a disproportionate impact of fear on a community,” Sobel said. “Imagine waking up and finding these on your front lawn and you wonder, are my neighbors involved in this? Was this perpetrated by my neighbor? Or are my neighbors going to be recruited to this? Does this kind of hate live amongst us?”
Sobel said 90% of the incidents in Connecticut are attributed to the white nationalist group the Patriot Front, who, according to the ADL, “maintain that their ancestors conquered America and bequeath it to them and no one else.”
