Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office investigating hate flyers in neighborhoods
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LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. (DC News Now) — The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a number of flyers containing hate speech that were left in neighborhoods on Monday.
A spokesman for the sheriff’s office said that 88 flyers have been collected since they were found on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. He said that there were three variations of the flyers, including racist language, disparaging comments about Martin Luther King Jr. and references to the White Knights. The flyers, left in driveways inside of bags with pebbles, list an out-of-state phone number.
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Loudoun County NAACP Chapter President Pastor Michelle Thomas said some of the flyers were found in her Ashburn neighborhood. She said this is a recurrent incident in the county.
“It used to surprise everybody we used to be caught off guard. It is becoming more normalized,” she said, noting the incident’s overlapping with MLK Day. “You can count on it like clockwork. What would have been surprising if it did not happen and obviously, they did not fail with their racism.”
The sheriff’s office has not charged anyone in connection to the incident, and the spokesman said that the most someone could be charged with is trespassing.
Thomas said she is contacting lawmakers, urging them to codify punishments for disseminating such materials.
“There is nothing in terms of legislation that can be done to catch these people. If you go through Landsdowne, you’re going to see everybody has a Ring. Everybody has a Ring. But even if we caught them on a Ring camera, what do we charge them with, littering?” she said.
In Virginia, leaving hate messages does not constitute a hate crime. Thomas said it should be, as the messaging terrorizes and intimidates people.
The sheriff’s office said that in the past, the homes where flyers were left do not appear to be targeted. Investigators believe the locations where flyers were found were chosen randomly.
Anyone with information about the incident should contact the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
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