These flyers — weighted down with stones — appeared in the driveways of Long Lots area residents this morning:
Although the flyer lists neo-Nazi and white supremacist websites — and challenges Westporters to “find the courage to stand up before it is too late” — no individual or organization has the courage to identify themselves as the distributor.
At least one homeowner has taken the flyer to the Westport Police.
Outrageous.
How disgraceful! And how cowardly to hide behind anonymity.
This is demoralizing, scary and depressing! I have lived in Westport for 23 1/2 years and never have I felt one ounce of fear or disgust; happy to be in a truly safe, accepting and beautiful environment that embraces different cultures, beliefs. Unfortunately, this is very much indicative and the sign of the time we are living now which seems to be trickling down for THE TOP!!! It is not trickle down economics but trickle down ignorance!!!
sorry, I meant trickling down FROM The Top not FOR The Top!
Dan, certainly a first in my 50 years here. Thanks for all you do to combat this ignorant, venomous idiocy.
We are at critical crossroads both here in US and elsewhere on the planet. The ideas that underpin this flyer should have been consigned to the fringes of all civilized societies after the defeat of fascism in the twentieth century. Events in the former Yugoslavia in the 1980s should have been a stark reminder that notions of ethnic cleansing did not disappear with Hitler’s suicide. Anyone who thinks that it couldn’t happen here should pay close attention to that flyer. The people who produced the flyer have been emboldened by those at the top of the current political hierarchy that this no longer fringe politics but something that is acceptable and likely to gain traction. I hope that a majority of the French will help us all back towards the light.
…brought to you by the MINE IS BIGGER mentality that has been allowed to permeate our culture without any shame…think it was always there to an extent but not as widespread and much more subtle…it’s getting really scary out here…is Donald Trump our president because we have lost our moral compass?
I trust and hope that every effort and use of various surveillance cameras are used to determine who is responsible and that when we find out the names are released to the whole community so that we can know who we wish was not living here. If it is under age kids then please charge the parents for cultivating such hateful and harmful behavior. No place in our community for this. If someone wants to organize a protest against these people I will be there!
Agree with Comments above… just horrendous to see it in our community — I can imagine how others feel when their temples are targeted with swastikas or their mosques are burned down. And I, too, have felt grateful to live in an accepting and tolerant community.
BTW, there were incidents of similar flyers showing up in Norwalk area driveways about 3 months ago: http://www.thehour.com/news/article/White-supremacist-fliers-found-in-Norwalk-10911670.php –
Perhaps the Westport police can work together with Norwalk police to get to the bottom of this.
Meanwhile, I expect to hear a strong denouncement and some type of initiative from our First Selectman about getting to the bottom of this ugly incident…
Fortunately, there has been an outcry here in the “Comments” Section from Dan’s readers – those vociferously-Pro-Trump supporters – about this stain on our community…
Oh wait… 🤔
Lisa Marie Alter
All folks who think they’re pure anything should take a dna test…purity and whiteness doesn’t exist. We are all multicolored multi ethnic mutts..not a purebred among us.
I would HOPE that the pamphleteer’s “culture is “completely erased.” Not in the next 40 years but, oh, perhaps tomorrow.
Thousands of years of heritage? Must be talking about native Americans. Caucasians haven’t been here very long. Ignorance is the new currency.
On a happy note, Macron has triumphed over the anti-Semitic Le Pen.
I just spoke with Steve Ginsburg — the Anti-Defamation League’s Connecticut director, and a Westport resident.
He said that while the ADL has seen a “significant spike” in hate crimes and anti-Semitic incidents in the first quarter of 2017, and while it’s disturbing to see Westport targeted, he’s proud that the town has responded with “kindness and support.”
Steve also thanked the Westport Police Department for responding quickly, and investigating thoroughly.
There are other theories. Note the spike in anti-Semtic incidents in 2014-2015.
http://www.onlysimchas.com/news/48731/assemblyman-dov-hikind-d-stop-scapegoating-trump-for-anti-semitism
It would be interesting to know who put this out. The Trump election
has been responsible for the rage and hate we are now seeing come
to the surface like the pus in a pimple.
Once we know who put these out we cannot defy the First Amendment
of the Constitution and stop them. Even though Trump does not know
our protection of these hate mongers they have a right of Free Speech.
Estelle T. Margolis
Do we know who these hate monger are?
Of course they don’t, but the perpetually offended remain, well, perpetually offended. This smells more like False Flag to me….remember the Duke Lacrosse Team “Rape” fiasco? Tawana Brawley, etc ad nauseum? First place i’d look for whoever disseminated these flyers is local BLM headquarters.
But I get it……the yelpers see a grand opportunity to jump on Trump and they are gleefully sinking to the occasion.
A notice at the bottom of this sheet promotes alt_right. Steve Bannon, Trump’s adviser who has an office in the White House, is a darling of the alt_right movement . See this comment from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2017/02/21/breitbart-under-bannon-breitbarts-comment-section-reflects-alt-right-anti-semitic-language
Comments from 06880 readers who connect this flyer to Trump are spot on.
ADW Staples 1956
Do we know who distributed the flyers? Is it important that we know?
What did I do ADW Staples 56? Kick sand in your face when we were at Staples? BJK Staples 55. Sending a link to Southern Poverty Law Center was amusing I admit – they got about as much creds as Rachel Maddow.
Good for a laff tho – I’ll admit that.
I just picked up the flyer from my driveway. It was in a clear plastic cover with several stones as weights. These people tried hard to get their revolting message across. But have we seen anyone on this blog take credit for this dissemination of hate? No we have not! Why is that? Because they are cowards spewing morally bankrupt nonesense. We will not hear from them because they are afraid to show their faces. As Voltaire said (a little paraphrased) “I disagree with what you say but would defend to the death your right to say it”. In the case of these cowardly purveyors of hate, they would not defend our right to say anything and would prefer to beat us to death for saying anything against them. Thank you to the French for showing us all here in the US that the light is still there.
Mistakenly attributed to Voltaire… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Beatrice_Hall
These flyers barely qualify as free speech…
Copied invective thrown in plastic bags in the dead of night. Could there be any more convincing evidence that this is the doing of cowards cringing from the light?
“Evidence?” WHAT ‘evidence’? My money is on either BLM or one of Soros’
groups running a false flag op to stir up the pot.
There is ZERO “evidence” of who actually created and delivered this flyer.
Oh what a fool I’ve been. Duped by the socialists who get paid piece-work for every pebble, plastic bag, and phoney right wing screed they toss onto a Westport driveway by the maleficicent Soros. Thanks for the clear thinking analysis.
Not.
Predictably, this heinous incident, reported on Dan’s blog, generates posts (some from people I admire) that make reference to the current administration / Trump himself as somehow connected, responsible, or emblematic of this mentality.
Absolutely false and without any factual support (unless just blindly repeating something read on liberal websites); in fact the previous administration was decidedly anti-Israel / anti-Semitic while Trump is plainly not. The deterioration of racial harmony is also a feature of the previous administration. As for the “recent” spike in hate crimes per the ADL, it might be of interest to investigate the facts regarding the identities those who have been found responsible – perhaps surprisingly, they have (largely) frequently committed by those who are the target of the hate.
Dear god, I hope you’re kidding. And if so, dear god.
Your streak of rarely having something helpful, positive or factual to say is intact
So, you are indeed a fan of the politics of fear, hate, and ignorance.
If not, please explain.
I’ll second that one too Jack…..a particularly odious individual.
Well done………..and right on the money Jack Whittle.
“Right on the money” explains what?
It appears that the only way Mr. Whittle can defend Trump is to make to make false allegations about President Obama. Trump will stand or fall based on his own performance, not by phony comparisons to his predecessors.
True. How do you explain Mr. Kent? Neither Mr. Whittle nor Mr. Kent will answer questions. Frightened, I suppose.
This is disgusting. I do not think this is coincidental considering Trump has allowed and encouraged this behavior. We all must stand strong and fight back against this. This is not who we are by any means!
In NYC we had experience of some flyers like these being posted only to have it turn out that it was a graduate school study, I hope that these flyers turn out to be only something like that and not malicious. (Susan Farley)
“graduate school study”??
OK.. here is what I propose.. All prisoners, all gang members, all people who profess to hate anyone/anything, perhaps even to bullies in schools who target other kids…..be mandated to take a DNA that shows their ethnicity. I saw an interview once by an ex-prisoner who was a white supremacist who had, years ago, appeared on Oprah (or some other show.. Donahue maybe?) and he was an unapologetic racist. He then went into prison and when he got out, he made a heartfelt apology and told the world he had been so dumb. His best friends in prison had been the targets of his hatred. Now that we have ubiquitous communications, and cutting edge DNA technology, there are ways to deal with these types of hatred, it just takes a lack of silliness and name calling. This way, perhaps we can stop the hatred before it spreads through another generation. And for this generation, we can make these haters face their stupidity before they commit hate crimes.
Another brilliant “graduate school study”.
..like, maybe she could get a hobby….
Who?
i have witnessed white supremacists walking on Hillspont Rd over the past 2 summers. One man walks in military uniform with a large imprinted F Obama all over it. During the election a pick up truck had a large sign going thru local parking lots,ie,Fresh market,advocating Trump by loudspeaker. The man was announcing Clintons email scandal and was reinforced with his large sign in the pick up. When , I photographed and video the episode the man confronted me. He got out of his truck,etc. I spoke to the police and said that it was up to the local store to complain if they wanted to.
I also reported the guy in the pickup to the police last fall also, with a photo and license plate info. We were having lunch at an outdoor venue and he parked his truck next to us and started shouting his (nonsensical) rant at us for no apparent reason. You never know if someone may be carrying a firearm – that’s what alarmed me. We allow Open Carry in CT.
These were distributed in Norwalk also, a couple of months ago.
If these flyers were distributed in plastic bags, the police should be able to get some fingerprints. I’d think there’s a good chance these turds are “in the system”.
We moved to this area 29+ years ago because it was a creative hub for writers artists musicians and dancers. Other than a few bad apples in the arts, most creative people have no barriers in regard to any form of humanity. It’s a community of inclusion. I am saddened by the posters going around, and even more saddened by a few of the comments. I hope our police department can find out who is responsible for this. Whether this is technically freedom of speech, or a hate crime, to me since it hurts so many, it feels like a hate crime.
Hopefully the police are working hard to track down whoever is behind this. There was also an incident of anti-Semitic graffiti at Staples High School last week, and there seems likely to be a connection here. Since extremist organizations generally seek to draw attention to themselves and their agendas, and no one has yet claimed “credit” for any of this, we have to at least consider the possibility that this could be something other than what it appears to be on the surface. If it’s a deceptive provocation, we shouldn’t take the bait and start fighting with each other.
The police are probably feeling hamstrung in their ability to do much here, but at the very least they should able to track down and investigate the culprits. Our community doesn’t need this sort of thing and we deserve answers about what’s going on.
Horrible! Brought up at my meeting tonight.
From the other coast– the same flyer. Maybe Spokane has some insight to offer us: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/feb/23/white-nationalists-papered-areas-of-downtown-spoka/#/0
No comment on who is responsible. We need to know.
The first site mentioned on the flyers does (sadly) exist. Its owner is identified in the article. Said site, in a recent blog post about a similarly abhorrent flyer, tells its followers to use a specific hashtag on Twitter to brag after distributing it, which I see they do. It’s likely they’ve done this with other flyers, like the one in question, but I didn’t have the desire to spend any more time than I had to on that site. Hopefully law enforcement is doing this and takes appropriate action.
Yes, but we still need to know who distributed the flyers.