LEESBURG, VA — Several downtown Leesburg residents found bags of candy along with images and literature representing the Klu Klux Klan on their doorsteps Sunday morning, according to multiple reports. Leesburg Police said they received complaints from several people, but inasmuch that there were no threatening messages in the bags, they were protected by free speech.

According to WTOP, the bags contained candy as well as three sheets of paper with cartoons and propaganda. On the cartoon were the words "Attention White America! We are nearing the end of the line," as well as "white extinction." The literature railed against blacks, Jews and liberals. Leesburg Police spokesman Sam Shenouda said the bags appeared to be a KKK recruitment effort, and that he notified federal authorities as an FYI. But as he told Loudoun Now, "It's not illegal to do that."

Several similar incidents have happened across the country, include one last spring in Texas, where recruiting flyers for the Klan were disguised in a bag of candy and distributed to 17 homes in Texas City. Tucked inside the plastic bags of candy was a message written in bold black letters from the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan that read: "Help save our race! Join the best or die like the rest" and "Say No To Cultural Genocide." Watch Now: KKK Propaganda In Bags Of Candy Greets Leesburg Residents

In August 2016, Gary Monker, who said he is the Exalted Cyclops, or chief officer, in New York of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK, told Patch that many people have misconceptions about the organization.

"We're the only organization right now standing up for whites, upholding the second amendment of the Constitution," he said. "We are not a hate group. We are Christian and we're trying to restore America back to what it used to be."

The Klan, though, has long been recognized as one of the most vile hate groups in the United States, judged so by, among others, The Southern Poverty Law Center.

