Racist flyers from a branch of the Ku Klux Klan containing anti-semitic language were found on the property of multiple residences along Marshall St. in the Fairfax County section of Falls Church earlier this week, according to local resident.
The notices appeared to be from the Loyal White Knights KKK, a branch of the hate group based out of Richmond, and were scattered among multiple driveways and lawns in both the Greenway Downs and Jefferson Village neighborhoods located along Marshall St. before being discovered by a resident getting off work around 3 a.m. last Sunday morning, July 22. The man alerted his neighbors via the Nextdoor website, a social network for neighborhood communities, soon after and multiple neighbors confirmed over the site they had also found the notices. A resident, who asked to remain anonymous, told the News-Press she found one flyer in her yard and saw another under a neighbor’s car in a driveway.
Both residents said they contacted the Fairfax County Police, one through the non-emergency line and the other via email, but neither received a follow-up from the department.
“We’re unaware of any reports about this bias incident. That’s unusual, because we obviously take something like that very seriously,” Fairfax County Police Sergeant Aaron Fife told the News-Press. “We’ll look into the origin of these flyers and if there were any circumstances that caused the distributors to come to that neighborhood.”
Fife added that there was little recourse for the flyers’ distribution. Without any witnesses to the incident, the burden of proof to apprehend the distributors for a misdemeanor such as littering is too high. The lack of evidence makes it a “stretch” that any magistrate will pursue legal action, according to Fife.
KKK flyers have been popping up locally throughout 2018. Earlier this month, flyers were found in Gainesville, Bristow and Warrenton. At the end of June, flyers were discovered in Covington, Virginia. They’ve also been located in Winchester, Triangle, Leesburg, Ashburn and Fredericksburg over the course of the year.
Chris Barker, who’s the imperial wizard of the Loyal White Knights KKK, told the Winchester Star back in April that the flyers are distributed as a part of a recruiting effort. To avoid coming into conflict with state hate crime laws, the flyers are distributed randomly and deliberately do not make death threats in their messaging.
