North Baltimore residents find racist, anti-LGBTQ+ flyers; hateful literature being investigated in city, county
Several North Baltimore residents found gravel-filled plastic bags containing flyers promoting a white supremacist organization Wednesday morning, prompting police to investigate the racist and anti-LGBTQ+ literature as a hate crime.
Meanwhile, Baltimore County Police said Wednesday that they are investigating similar matters in the Cockeysville and Parkville areas after literature was found there, some of which police said had an anti-Semitic tone.
“It’s really unsettling,” said Baltimore Councilman Mark Conway, whose district includes the Bellona-Gittings and Cedarcroft neighborhoods where the literature signed by The Loyal White Knights, a white supremacist group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan, was found. The Democratic City Council member said a constituent had reached out to him about receiving the flyer.
Baltimore Police said officers responded Wednesday morning to the 6200 block of Sycamore Road in Cedarcroft regarding the papers scattered throughout the neighborhood.
“It is unknown at this time who scattered the offensive papers throughout the neighborhood,” police spokesperson Freddie Talbert said, noting that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.
Conway, who was elected in 2020, said he has been aware of local extremists who participated in the Jan. 6 riots and a nearby case of voter intimidation, as well as nationwide networks of extremists with activity in the state, but had not seen any hate group activity in the city as upfront as Wednesday’s flyer distribution.
“It really worries me. We need to stay vigilant as a neighborhood,” he said, encouraging those who received a flyer or who may have doorbell camera footage of the distribution to contact police.
Nathan Hubler, a Cedarcroft resident for 17 years, said he’d never seen hate messages in the neighborhood. Despite the messages, Hubler decided to decorate his home with pride flags to show he will not be intimidated and others in the community are not alone.
“We put up decorations to show the Ku Klux Klan we are not scared,” Hubler said.
He also said many of his neighbors still planned to attend the Maryland Democratic Party’s Pride brunch scheduled for Saturday at a home in the neighborhood. Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller and Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman are scheduled guests for the event.
Authorities in Baltimore County called the flyer distribution there a part of a “national trend,” and asked those with information to contact investigators at 410-307-2020 or anonymously through Metro Crime Stoppers at 1-866-756-2587.
Those with information on the incidents in Baltimore City can contact investigators at HateCrimes@BaltimorePolice.org.
