An official of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment says racist fliers left outside an NAACP gathering last week may mean hate groups are taking a "more aggressive direction."
The fliers placed on cars outside a hotel where the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was sponsoring a gathering of black families marked the fourth time racist leaflets were distributed in Idaho Falls. But it was the first time there was a specific target."It's certainly alarming, threatening and intimidating," said Mary Daley, Idaho's coordinator for the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment. "It sets an attitude, a tone, that if (fliers) are OK, then the next thing is OK. It can lead to more vicious kinds of things."
An anonymous caller told the Post Register newspaper on Friday that a group calling itself the White Youth Coalition was responsible for the fliers. The Idaho Falls Police Department said the group was not believed to be linked to the White Aryan Resistance and Eastern Idaho Firm, which were responsible for distributing previous racist fliers in the city.
Arnetta Hagan, vice president of the local NAACP branch, said she and other participants at Thursday night's gathering were shocked by the fliers.
"You're not used to it because it's not an everyday occurrence," she said. "We warned the other members not to go out alone."
The anonymous caller told the newspaper the White Youth Coalition encourages racial separation and is a "legitimate organization for white youth," but that it does not promote violence.
The fliers included a disparaging picture of a black man and the message, "A brain is a terrible thing to waste that's why . . . Niggers don't have any."
Wes Diest, chairman of the city's Cultural Awareness Committee, said the fliers broke no laws because they did not target an individual or threaten violence.
"About the only thing you can get them on," Diest said, "is littering the street."