Neo-nazi recruitment flyers found outside Middletown homes. LGBTQ+ organization notified.
MIDDLETOWN – Local law enforcement are looking into homophobic, racist neo-Nazi recruitment flyers that were found scattered around the Easton’s Point neighborhood in Middletown last week.
“Right now it still remains an open investigation,” Middletown Police Department Capt. Jason Ryan said. “We’re asking anyone who may have information regarding who may be responsible for them to contact the police department.”
A Middletown resident reported the flyers to police when she discovered sandwich bags containing the flyers and small white stones on the driveways of homes on Tuckerman Avenue and Esplanade while on her morning run on July 25, according to the Middletown incident report. She had collected 19 bags in total which she turned over to police.
The flyers advertise the white supremacist, neo-Nazi group Nationalist Socialist Club 131 (NSC 131) which has small chapters throughout New England. The flyers themselves spout bigoted misinformation and rhetoric targeting the LGBTQ+ community and use racist fear-mongering tactics to recruit others to their organization.
Ryan said Middletown police reached out to both Newport and Portsmouth Police Departments. Newport received a vague report of a suspicious flyer around the same time, but Portsmouth had not received any reports of anything similar when Middletown reached out to them.
Ryan said the department has shared the information about the flyers with the FBI and the Rhode Island State Fusion Center, which investigates activity related to terrorism and public safety. However, there is not much else the department can do beyond that.
“If it's specifically targeted at an individual, if there was another crime associated with it such as assault or something that proceeded or went with it, then we would have more ability, but unfortunately just handing out a flyer with hateful information on it is protected speech,” Ryan said.
Who's behind it?: Rhode Island saw a huge increase in white supremacist incidents last year
Since much of the rhetoric on the flyers targeted the LGBTQ+ community, Middletown police and multiple residents who discovered these flyers alerted Newport OUT, the city’s main LGBTQ+ advocacy organization. Co-Founders Daniel Cano Restrepo and Sean O’Connor posted information about the flyers on their website.
Cano Restrepo said he was considering hosting workshops or lectures on homophobia and racism in the community to empower the community and make them aware of these kinds of situations.
“They give me a lot of anger especially because if you pay attention to what they’re saying, it's all lies,” Cano Restrepo said. “It’s just frustrating to see somebody going door-to-door to deliver these false ideas and then portraying our community as demons.”
This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Neo-nazi recruitment flyers found in Middletown, RI, reported to police
