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White nationalist propaganda in Ashland, Ore.

(Courtesy of the Ashland Police Department)

Police in Ashland are looking for a person who posted pro-Nazi, white nationalist fliers around Ashland Sunday night or Monday morning.

The signs appeared Monday morning in and around downtown Ashland. For the most part, said Ashland Police Chief Tighe O'Meara, "People just took the signs down and threw them away."

Still, the police are hoping to find the person who posted them, who goes by @NationalistAct on Twitter, and posted pictures on social media of the posters before they were removed.

Most of the posters include the Twitter handle, which has 24 followers, and swastikas with different phrases. One flier read, "We will secure the existence of our people and a future for white children."

Another seems to reference Hitler as a good leader:

According to the Twitter biography, the handle is the "official page of the #Cascadian Nationalist Resistance," though there is no mention of the white nationalist group "#Cascadian Nationalist Resistance" anywhere else online.

Ashland police provided a picture of the person possibly responsible for the posters, which they found on social media. They've asked the public to help them identify the suspect.

UPDATE: Earlier today, APD arrested Justin Anthony Marbury (27) on several counts of criminal mischief. He is... Posted by Ashland Oregon Police Department on Monday, January 23, 2017

Chief O'Meara said Monday over the phone that this is the first incident he can recall of Nazi propaganda appearing in Ashland.

"We usually have no incidents like this," he said, adding he hopes this isn't the first of a larger post-election increase.

Elizabeth Steele, spokesperson for FBI in Oregon, said the FBI does not track white nationalists or other hate groups on Twitter "until somebody commits an act that crosses a line into criminal behavior."

Steele, who was not familiar with the Ashland case but spoke more generally, said that everyone has "a constitutional right to say what you want to say as long as it doesn't cross certain lines,"

Those lines include threats and conspiracy to commit a crime.

She added, "If people are concerned about they are seeing or hearing they should either call their police or their local FBI."

Chief O'Meara said the Ashland police consider the posting of these fliers a crime.

"At the very least, it's criminal mischief," he said. "Maybe it could turn into something else like intimidation."

If you have any information about this case you can contact the Ashland Police Department at 541-482-5211 or tipline@ashland.or.us.

-- Lizzy Acker

503-221-8052

lacker@oregonian.com, @lizzzyacker