The city of Campbell took down white nationalist posters hanging in public spaces on Tuesday around lunchtime.

Campbell’s Public Works Department removed flyers by Identity Evropa, identified as a white nationalist group by civil rights organizations, because posting on public property violates the municipal code, according to the city.

The city manager’s office said public works removes signs on poles as a general practice, regardless of content. Campbell Mayor Paul Resnikoff added organizations such as Identity Evropa and their messages of hate do not belong in the community.

“It’s disturbing that someone would post these flyers in Campbell,” Resnikoff said. “Their message is not welcome here.”

The posters advertised Identity Evropa and its website with “Our generation, Our Future, Our Last Chance” over a picture of white men.

“We want to be everywhere, so that includes Campbell,” said Sam Harrington, a spokesperson for Identity Evropa based on the East Coast. “…Flyering and everything else is of course part of our objective but we also want to become worthy of sympathy and therefore power in the end.”

Assemblyman and former Campbell Mayor Evan Low was among those who condemned the formation and existence of Identity Evropa and other Neo-Nazi groups in the South Bay.

“Their recent growth in my diverse hometown of Campbell is deeply disturbing,” Low said in a statement emailed to this news organization. “I applaud the City of Campbell for acting swiftly to address this problem and remove these signs. Hate has no place in the City of Campbell. Period.”

One of Identity Evropa’s posters was on a pole just above crosswalk buttons at the intersection of Third Street and Campbell Avenue. Identity Evropa tweeted photos of two other signs posted in Campbell on June 18.

The Anti-Defamation League describes Identity Evropa as a “white supremacist group focused on the preservation of ‘white American culture’ and promoting white European identity.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “Rather than denigrating people of color, the campus-based organization focuses on raising white racial consciousness, building community based on shared racial identity and intellectualizing white supremacist ideology.”

Identity Evropa says it has about 200 members in the Bay Area that do social media networking, meet-ups, flyering, and organizing for European-American dominance. Founded in 2016 by Nathan Damigo, who grew up and went to school in San Jose, its national membership is close to 1,000, according to the group.

Harrington said Identity Evropa is exclusively European-American and the average member is in their mid 20s. The group vets new members through a written application and Skype interviews. If members advocate supremacy, violence, or illegal activity, Harrington said they are typically removed.

“We argue, of course, that it (America) shouldn’t be a multicultural state,” Harrington said, “and that we should to some degree maintain the traditional demographics of the country of what we did have and to rectify the injustices that are present in both our history and that may be current today. Our interest is in maintaining the European supermajority in the country.”

If similar posters are found in county-controlled or unincorporated land, Santa Clara County Executive Jeffrey Smith said the county will remove them per nuisance regulations prohibiting hateful and damaging postings. Residents throughout Santa Clara County can report white nationalist flyers to the county public information office, which will contact the appropriate authority to deal with them.

He added white nationalist philosophies that descendants of European immigrants are superior or are more deserving of control spread hatred, mistrust and dishonesty.

“It’s a really sad situation in this country right now where hatred is accepted and becoming normalized,” Smith said. “We all have to fight that very vigorously to prevent ourselves from becoming a third-world nation.”

Orchard City Indivisible, the Campbell chapter of a national progressive movement resisting President Donald Trump, rebuked the posters.

“Orchard City Indivisible’s sole focus is stopping any agenda built on racism, authoritarianism, and corruption, OCI is unequivocally against, and disgusted by, everything Identity Evropa stands for,” the organization said in a statement emailed to this news organization. “IE has no place in our community.”