Carlos Enrique Londoño laughs at the Ku Klux
Klan recruitment flier recently left on the driveway of his suburban New York
home. It’s unlikely the group would accept him.
“I’m Colombian and dark-skinned,” said
Londoño, a painter and construction worker who has lived in Hampton Bays on
Long Island for 30 years.
The flier was tucked into a plastic bag
along with a membership application, the address for the KKK national office in
North Carolina, a list of beliefs and three Jolly Rancher candies.
The packages appear to be part of a wider
recruitment effort by the Klan across the country, Ryan Lenz, senior writer for
the Southern Poverty Law Center, told CNN on Saturday.
Similar fliers have turned up in dozens of
U.S. cities over the past six months, Lenz said. The SPLC was founded by civil
rights lawyers, and is known for tracking and exposing the activities of such
groups.
The SPLC says the Ku Klux Klan is the most
infamous and oldest of American hate groups. African-Americans have been the
main target of the historically violent group, but the Klan also has targeted
Jews, immigrants, gays, lesbians and Catholics.
The center estimates that there are between
5,000 and 8,000 Klan members nationwide, divided among dozens of divergent and
warring groups.
“Since the 1970s the Klan has been greatly
weakened by internal conflicts, court cases, a seemingly endless series of
splits and government infiltration,” the SPLC says on its website.
The Klan’s Loyal White Knights, the same
group touted on the applications sprinkled on front lawns in Hampton Bays, has
started major recruitment efforts, according to Lenz.
Renewed efforts after Ferguson shooting,
unrest?
Lenz suspects the Klan may be seizing on a
moment when the issues of race and immigration are dominant in the national
debate. The group may be seeking to capitalize on growing racial tension to
garner support, he said.
Some Klan members even vowed to head to
Ferguson, Missouri, to stand in the solidarity with a white police officer who
shot an unarmed black teenager on August 9, Lenz said. The shooting death drew
international attention as the St. Louis suburb erupted with sometimes violent
protests and a heavy-handed police response.
Calls seeking comment from Klan headquarters
in Pelham, North Carolina, were not returned Saturday.
In New York, the Southampton Town Police
said it had contacted the Suffolk County Police Department’s hate crimes unit
about the fliers.
Londoño said the Klan appeared eager to send
a message in the predominantly white town.
“It seems they want the white community to
know that Latinos are moving in,” he said. “People are coming here
for the work and that does not sit well with them and they feel intimidated.”
Hampton Bays resident Karen Fritsch said the
fliers included faded-ink “crude (and) ridiculous” caricatures that
appeared aimed at blacks, Latinos and Jewish people.
“It says, beware, we want your jobs, we want
your home and we want your country,” Fritsch said of the message.
Fritsch said she was shocked when her
husband found the small package on her front lawn last week.
“It’s terrible that my neighbors had to
receive something like that,” Frisch said of the Londoños. “I really
want no part of that. Why would anyone want to be part of a hate group?”
Fliers part of a ‘national
night ride‘
The Klan has targeted other
cities.
In Orange, California, just
south of Angel Stadium, residents last month received fliers in sealed plastic
bags, according to CNN affiliate KTLA.
The message on the fliers was
“Save our land, join the Klan” and included a phone number and
website in Pelham, KTLA reported. The group said it was focused on illegal
immigration from Mexico.
The voicemail on the hotline
associated with the flier closes with the message: “Always remember: If it
ain’t white, it ain’t right. White power.”
In Seneca, South Carolina, some
residents last month received bags with fliers and candy, CNN affiliate WHNS
reported. The packages directed people to a “Klan Hotline” number
that ended with the same recorded “white power” message, the station
reported.
Robert Jones, the
“Imperial Klaliff” of the Loyal White Knights sect, told WHNS that
the effort was part of the Klan’s “national night ride” — a
recruitment event that happens three times a year.
Jones said recruitment efforts
were not aimed at specific people and that residents “shouldn’t be fearful
unless they’re doing something that the Klan considers morally wrong,”
according to WHNS.
In Katy, Texas, residents early
last month received fliers inviting them to “join the fight to protect
U.S. borders,” according to CNN affiliate KPRC.
Damian Neveaux, who is
African-American, found a flier and called the number because he, too, was
concerned about border security, KPRC reported.
He reached a Klan
representative who told him he would not be allowed to join.
“‘The only way you can become a member is if
you’re 100 percent Caucasian,” Neveaux recalled the Klan member telling
him, according to KPRC. “This flier wasn’t meant for you.'”
