A neighborhood in the city of Orange has been targeted by an apparent recruitment effort from a branch of the infamous white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan.
Residents in the area of Almond Avenue and Flower Street, just south of Angel Stadium, this week discovered fliers for the Loyal White Knights of the KKK delivered to their homes.
The fliers, encased in sealed plastic bags that were weighted down with small rocks, state “Save Our Land Join the Klan” and provide a phone number, website and P.O. Box address in Pelham, North Carolina.
Paul Parra, among those who received the flier at his home, said he wasn’t offended by the flier but would “probably not” support the KKK.
“I thought it was kind of weird,” Parra said. “Maybe from all the immigrants coming in or something — I don’t know — they’re handing these out.”
But several other residents said they were very offended.
“We threw it right in the trash,” said John Sutphin. “There’s no time for haters in our lives.”
Patricia Dufrane said she was revolted by the fliers and concerned for her neighbors.
“I don’t want people waking up to something like that wondering if the Ku Klux Klan is moving in on us,” Defrane said.
Officials with the Orange Police Department said they had received calls about the fliers, but since no crime was committed, they had no response.
The phone number provided on the flier went to an outgoing voicemail message that exhorted callers to “Be a man, join the Klan.”
The message focused on illegal immigration from Mexico, used a racial slur and made a variety of false claims about diseases that were brought to the United Stated by immigrants.
“It is time to enforce our immigration laws and send them back, and put troops on our border with a shoot-to-kill policy,” the message stated.
The recording closed with this: “Always remember: If it ain’t white, it ain’t right. White power.”
The fliers, first reported by the Orange County Register, may had been related to a “national campaign” that the Loyal White Knights began earlier this month to generate membership and corresponding dues that pay leaders’ salaries, a senior fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center told the newspaper.
KKK recruitment fliers were handed out in recent days in North Carolina, in Texas, alongside candy in South Carolina , and elsewhere in the country, according to news reports.
The Montgomery, Alabama-based center, a nonprofit that tracks hate groups, estimates that 5,000 to 8,000 people belong to Klan-related groups, according to the center’s website.
The Loyal White Knights may be focused on immigrants because immigration is an emotional issue that resonates with people, the fellow said, according to the Register.