White supremacist fliers strewn on Bristol streets; neighbor says ‘It was honestly sickening’

Another round of white supremacist fliers has been dumped in a central Connecticut community: Homeowners in several sections of Bristol on Monday found recruitment fliers for the New England Nationalist Social Club scattered on local streets.

As with similar incidents in West Hartford and Enfield last month, the fliers were apparently tossed loose on the ground.

After getting complaint calls, Bristol’s public works department dispatched workers Monday morning to several streets to clean up the mess. Homeowners and public works staff contacted police, who are asking anyone who saw the distribution to contact them.

“The fliers were dumped across lawns and driveways up and down the entire street. We noticed them midday after lunch. They were not there in the morning. I initially dismissed them as run-of-the-mill litter since it’s not uncommon,” said one Ohio Drive homeowner who asked not to be named.

Ohio Drive is next to Northeast Middle School, he noted.

“It was extremely upsetting that these fliers were on the ground for potentially children to find when walking home. It was also random since we have a very diverse neighborhood,” he said in an email. “It was honestly sickening and made me very angry.”

In the same neighborhood, a Deer Park Road homeowner who wrote to The Courant and also requested anonymity called the fliers “deeply disturbing.”

“It seems they were left at the driveways on several of the homes we walked by on several surrounding streets,” he wrote. “When I picked up the first one to put into our trash bag I was shocked to see the verbiage, especially on this day, June 6th, the anniversary of the Allies storming the beaches of Normandy to rid Europe and the world of Nazism and fascism.”

The fliers are similar to ones found in Enfield and West Hartford in May. They do no threaten violence, but describe their organization as a “pro-white, street-oriented fraternity dedicated to raising authentic resistance to the enemies of our people.”

“Above all we stand for the security and prosperity of white New Englanders,” the fliers read.

The fliers list only one contact method, an address through Proton mail, a Switzerland-based encrypted email service.

The Anti-Defamation League lists the Nationalist Social Club as a neo-Nazi organization.

“NSC members see themselves as soldiers at war with a hostile, Jewish-controlled system that is deliberately plotting the extinction of the white race,” according to the ADL.

“NSC seeks to form an underground network of white men who are willing to fight against their perceived enemies through localized direct actions,” the ADL says. “NSC espouses racism, antisemitism and intolerance via the Internet, propaganda distributions and the use of graffiti.”

Mayor Jeff Caggiano on Tuesday condemned the fliers.

“Any forms of hate speech or divisiveness are not appropriate,” Caggiano said Tuesday afternoon, hours after attending a Pride flag-raising at Bristol Hospital. “We believe in equity for all and equality for all. These kinds of things aren’t good for anybody. I’m hopeful the police will be able to track down who is doing it.”

The distribution in Bristol appears to have been done very quickly, as in Enfield and West Hartford. Police in both of those communities tried to determine who put out fliers there, but so far haven’t succeeded.

Bristol Deputy Chief Matt Moskowitz said patrol officers and the public works department estimated a couple of hundred fliers were dumped along several streets in neighborhoods north of Route 6. Police sent investigators to ask homeowners for any surveillance video that might be useful in identifying who did it.

“We’ve asked for images from a Ring doorbell camera, and we’re following up leads,” Moskowitz said Tuesday.

Whoever dumped the fliers could be cited for illegal dumping, he said. Officer Brian Hileman is investigating, and police ask that anyone with information contact 860 584-3011.

Similar fliers were found strewn in the Milford, New Hampshire, and Brookline, Massachusetts, in 2020, and on the property of a private club in Providence, Rhode Island, last year.

Nationally, the ADL reported last year that that far-right and white supremacist groups have been distributing racist or anti-Semitic fliers or similar propaganda in record numbers in 2020.

The ADL said it recorded 5,125 cases in 2020, nearly double the amount of the previous year.