Propaganda for white supremacist group found in Wheaton

A Wheaton resident says he found flyers promoting a known white supremacist group in the city's downtown over the weekend. Submitted photo

Flyers promoting a white supremacist group appeared in downtown Wheaton over the weekend, but officials say they were quickly removed.

A resident who contacted the Daily Herald said he was downtown on Sunday morning when he saw "numerous" Patriot Front flyers taped to streetlight posts along Front Street.

The propaganda for the Texas-based group was found on the anniversary of the clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left three people dead.

In an email, the man said he ripped down the flyers, which included the address for a website owned by Patriot Front.

On Monday, Police Chief Bill Murphy said his department received a call about the flyers around 10 a.m. Sunday. He said most of the flyers were torn down by the time the responding officer arrived.

"I don't know how prolific the posting was," Murphy said. "I don't know how many of them there were. The person who put them up was never found."

The Anti-Defamation League describes Patriot Front as "a white supremacist group whose members maintain that their ancestors conquered America and bequeathed it solely to them."

"Patriot Front espouses racism, anti-Semitism and intolerance under the guise of preserving the 'ethnic and cultural origins' of their European ancestors," according to the league.

Several Wheaton officials said they weren't aware of the flyers until they were notified by a reporter.

Mayor Michael Gresk and he's never seen or heard of such flyers being posted in the community.

"It would run counter to what we are in Wheaton," Gresk said. "We are a very welcoming community in terms of religion and race. It's nothing that I've ever seen or heard of in town."

In March, anti-immigrant flyers containing the address of Patriot Front's website were distributed in neighborhoods in Wauconda and Mundelein. Meanwhile, state and Woodridge officials earlier this month denounced racist and anti-Semitic leaflets that were left in some mailboxes in the village.

Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, said the incidents are a reminder that hate still exists.

"We've never as a country done a very effective job of dealing with the issues of race and injustice," Yohnka said. "It's clearly something that we need to do."