KKK literature with candy hearts thrown onto Hatboro lawns, police confirm
Racist literature distributed anonymously over night on lawns in Hatboro is the latest incident of its type in Montgomery County. The local police chief called the pamphlets "distasteful at a minimum."
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Hatboro residents awoke Saturday morning to find racist pamphlets with the admonitions "wake up WHITE AMERICA" and "stand up for your rights as a White American" strewn on lawns, police confirmed Saturday.
The pamphlets referenced the Loyal White Knights, a North Carolina group that considers itself an active chapter in the KKK.
The anonymous distributor attached plastic bags of candy hearts to the literature.
Hatboro Police Chief James Gardner said police were investigating the incident, contained to streets on the north end of town. Several residents called to report the pamphlets, which he described as "distasteful at a minimum." He said he knew of no racial tensions in Hatboro that could have triggered the incident.
"Some things are protected speech, but we have concerns with someone going around in the middle of the night and putting things on people's lawns," Gardner said. "We're taking this seriously."
The pamphlets are the latest incident of racist, white supremacist, or anti-Semitic literature distributed anonymously in Montgomery County towns or boroughs. Other areas with reported incidents over the last year or so are Red Hill, Pennsburg, East Greenville, and Upper Dublin.
A Hatboro resident who said a pamphlet was thrown on her property said she was shocked because "this had never happened before."