KKK Leaflet Campaign In Orange May Signal Ramp-Up In Recruitment Efforts
ORANGE (CBSLA.com/AP) — Residents in Orange say Ku Klux Klan recruitment fliers are being dropped in their neighborhood, using illegal immigration as an issue to attract new members.
KNX 1070's Mike Landa reports leaflets from the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were left in the yards of 15 homes around the 2400 block of Almond Avenue last weekend.
KKK Leaflet Campaign May Signal Ramp-Up In Recruitment Efforts
A call to a number on the fliers, which bear the slogan "Save Our Land Join The Klan" and other phrases, results in a message advocating a "shoot to kill" policy along the border, the Orange County Register reported.
An "About Us" page on the group's website claims the U.S. government is "working hard to bring in the New World Order" by "allowing all these illegal immigrants into our nation ... while true Americans are having a hard time finding a job."
The website also includes a membership application for "purely White American" applicants, as well as an application for the "Knights Kids Kadet Klub" for children from 13 to 17 years old.
Resident Gheri Sutfen said finding a KKK flier in a plastic Ziploc bag on her lawn was shocking and uncharacteristic for the community.
"My husband has been in this neighborhood since 1953; this is actually the house he grew up in," Sutfen said. "Never have we ever experienced anything like that."
Police told the Register that while they were unaware Klan fliers had been left at homes until they were notified Thursday, whoever was behind the effort did not break any laws.
CBS2's Michele Gile spoke to residents on Almond Avenue who had a message for the recruiters -- "Go away."
"I don't want to wake up on Sunday morning before going to church, and find something from the Ku Klux Klan," said Patricia Dufrane, "Who, by the way, if they knew what my bloodlines were, would kill me in a second. So, I don't want that here. I don't want my neighbors to feel that either."
She added that she was mortified.
The fliers on Almond were left late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
"Right in the trash," said one man.
Dufrane and other neighbors told Gile their area is racially-diverse and residents are close.
"It was very unnerving," said Jeri Sutphin. "I was shocked. This is a very, very nice neighborhood. We are very diversified. We watch each other's backs."
Other leaflet campaigns have occurred recently in Virginia and South Carolina, where residents say they found bags of candy on their street containing a piece of paper asking them to join the Ku Klux Klan.
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