Maryland State Police are investigating the distribution of racist literature found in a Talbot County community over the weekend.
On the morning of March 31, 2019, a resident of St. Michaels contacted the Easton Barrack and reported racist literature had been found distributed in driveways in the community. A trooper responded and his subsequent investigation found that the material had been left at residences predominantly in the area of Riverview Terrace and Cove Road in St. Michaels.
The printed material indicates it is produced by the Ku Klux Klan. It espouses racist views towardAfrican Americans, Jewish people, American Indians, and others. The material also solicits people to join the KKK. The flyers were found in clear plastic baggies. The bags also contained birdseed, which provides weight, enabling the package to be thrown into a driveway and remain there.
The trooper forwarded information from his investigation to the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center, the state’s fusion center, where local, state and federal authorities, including the FBI, were made aware of the incident. Information was also provided to the Eastern Shore Information Center, which is a local multi-jurisdictional task force of law enforcement agencies in the region.
This is being documented as a hate/bias incident as per the Maryland Public Safety Article Title 2-307.
However, the investigation has not established evidence that a crime has been committed. Troopers and allied law enforcement agencies will continue to document incidents like this and investigate them thoroughly. If elements of a crime are found, immediate action will be taken in cooperation with the
local state’s attorney’s office.
Any hate/bias incident, to include literature distributed in this way, should be reported to local law enforcement. In addition, the Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center tips line is always available at 1-800-492-TIPS(8477), where citizens can report suspicious activity possibly related to terrorism or
violent crime. The information will then be communicated to the appropriate local, state or federal law enforcement agency for follow-up.
Laurie P says
I sure wish this were the April Fool’s article instead of the Avalon Foundation one. This is shocking and very disturbing.
Thank you for making us aware of the recent activity and how to report it should there be more.
Monika Mraz says
any chance you could hide the contact information on the flyer so you aren’t inadvertently helping them recruit new members?
Dan Watson says
I’m as troubled as everyone else to read that KKK stuff is being distributed in our community. Brings “national issues” home to Talbot County. It shouldn’t happen here, but of course it can.
But I have to say this–and please, just go ahead and call me naive or worse. But if you read the so-called “literature,” does it even seem real? My god, if someone were trying to do a SNL parody of what a hate-filled white supremacist pile of tropes would say, could it be more absurd? It’s so over the top, it’s over the top. I know there are no limits to hate, and to stupidity, and to their dangerous combination. But still,….
I do hope someone gets to the bottom of it, and we find some certified bozos are behind this caper, and can discredit them all the more.
DW
Christine Brennan says
We also received this on Tilghman Island. And, sadly, while I do take Dan Watson’s point that it seems almost like a spoof, I don’t think it is. There is a Baltimore Sun article from November about the same stuff being distributed in Ellicott City and some other towns. If it were a one-time thing or a prank, I don’t think it would be this extensive, or go on this long. There really is this level of hatred out there, and it’s sobering to realize and accept it’s right here at home.
Dominic F. Terrone says
I don’t think it should surprise anyone that the KKK is recruiting in Talbot County. After all, Talbot County supports the presence of a bronze confederate flag statue on the county court house grounds. The only question I have is whether the printed materials were distributed by North Carolina KKK members or if the materials were mailed or carried to Talbot County and distributed by local residents. This is no prank. Aryan white supremacists/KKK extremists are working to reestablish themselves while the current administration in Washington looks the other way and refuses to condemn white supremacists and supports their anti-minority propaganda. The leaflet reads like a Trump statement on Mexicans.
I hope the Maryland State Police and FBI thoroughly investigate this incident so it doesn’t get swept under the rug. And this incident makes it all the more obvious that the Talbot Boys bronze statue of the confederate flag should be removed and placed elsewhere on private property.
Dorothy Drahzal says
I’m with you Dominic
Our Temple B’nai Israel dis ussed this horror tonight at shabbat services. How can we as a community deliver a clear message that this does not represent us.? That’s the next challenge..solidarity.
Gerson Martinez says
Without an equal and opposite reaction….this trend will never reverse.
I think our collective focus needs to turn to the understanding, acknowledgement, and celebration of people of color in every possible way. I don’t mean just making more noise about Black History Month, MLK or Frederick Douglass, but really, truly understanding the perspective of the people in the racial minority in our own back yard. Unless we do that, we have little hope of reversing the effects of hateful and dehumanizing language that is perpetuated from the top-down in our country.
I am Latino, I grew up in Talbot County, and I fear the effects that my daughter will feel of the hateful generalizations and dehumanizing rhetoric perpetuated by 45 and then gleefully adopted by kids and adults alike in Talbot County.
If you are interested in establishing connections and having conversations on this, I invite you to “Conversations on Race”, a bi-monthly meeting of community members to initiate dialogue between people of all races in Talbot County.
These meetings are open to the public and are hosted at the Talbot County Board of Education offices at 12 Magnolia Street in Easton. The link below has the details. Racism is abhorrent, real, and unavoidable every single day for the 45% of Talbot County Public School kids who aren’t white.
Join the conversation.
https://www.facebook.com/events/285323848729939/