White Supremacist Flyers Sent To Oak Forest Residents

OAK FOREST, IL — Flyers promoting white supremacy were delivered to Oak Forest neighborhoods this week, prompting some residents and the mayor to say that they don't welcome the ideology in the city.

"It think it's ridiculous," said Mayor Hank Kuspa. "In the eyes of God, we're all equal and there is not one race superior over another."

The flyers, titled "No White Guilt," list eight websites that promote white supremacist and anti-Semitic points of view. They were placed in sealed plastic bags and weighted with rocks, and were placed on lawns in sections of Oak Forest.

According to Police Chief Tim Kristin, two residents who received the flyers filed complaints about them. He said the city has not identified who distributed the literature.

Kuspa said he had not heard reports about the flyers until Patch called him for comment.

"It's just another crack pot out there. It's a shame, but it happens," he said.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, the national nonprofit that monitors hate and extremist groups, has logged 106 incidents of reported flyer distribution in Illinois since January 2018. Most of them come from the American Identity Movement and Identity Evropa, both white supremacists organizations, the group said. The center could not identify the creators of the Oak Forest flyer, but noted similarities to Neo-Völkisch adherents, who espouse a white, European ethnocentric view and "archaic" notions of gender.

Residents reported the flyer on a Facebook community group Tuesday, and in comments on a post, condemned the action. Those reached by Patch declined to speak publicly about the incident.

"However, any group that builds itself on hate doesn't have any place here," one commenter wrote.

The plastic-wrapped flyers have been reported near 151st Street and Central Avenue, on El Morro Lane, near Forestview Drive and Oak Park Avenue, and other locations.

Also see: White Supremacist Fliers Found on Cars in Crestwood: Reports