WILKES-BARRE — In response to a letter from U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, the U.S. Department of Justice said federal authorities have no power to monitor recruitment activities of KKK affiliates.

Addressing Casey's concerns over recent recruitment efforts in Wilkes-Barre and surrounding areas by a KKK affiliate, Assistant Attorney General Peter J. Kadzik in a letter dated Jan. 6 told the senator that the Department of Justice is "deeply concerned" about federal law violations involving individuals or groups that espouse racial or ethnic hatred, but notified him that federal authorities have no legal grounds to monitor recruitment activities.

Kadzik said the department's civil rights division can investigate and prosecute racially motivated crimes. Any time the Department of Justice receives allegations of racially motivated violence that might violate federal law, the division "thoroughly" investigates and, if warranted, "vigorously" prosecutes. However, monitoring recruitment efforts is not within its power to take action against, Kadzik said.

In sending the letter, Casey wanted to make the Department of Justice aware of this recruitment activity, said Casey spokesman John Rizzo. Now that the activity is on the department's radar, Casey will continue to make sure it has the resources necessary to prosecute any civil rights violations, whether they be in the state or elsewhere in the nation, Rizzo said.

After Ku Klux Klan supporters distributed fliers in September to homes in Wilkes-Barre, it caught Casey's attention, spurring him to mail a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch about the East Coast Knights of the True Invisible Empire, the group that distributed fliers.

Klan fliers urged readers to "Help us fight white racism, illegal immigration and terrorism." They included a KKK emblem and a phone number that connected to a Klan group.

The organization's website "tries to distinguish the group from the violent history of the KKK, but a similarly hateful ethos still clearly exists. One of the group's stated goals is to stop interracial relationships, because ‘the mixing of the Race has been forbidden by God since the beginning of time,'" Casey's letter says.

"Our laws and Constitution generally protect people's right to assemble and speak as they please, even if that speech contains ideas repugnant to the American values of civility and equality. The East Coast Knights are entitled to those protections. Yet, as tragedies like the recent shooting in South Carolina illustrate, intolerance can lead to violence," Casey wrote.

jseibel@citizensvoice.com

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