TOPSHAM

A Mt. Ararat High School student whose sister found a Ku Klux Klan flier in his family’s driveway on Monday is worried white supremacists feel emboldened to pass out such literature to families.

Several Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan neighborhood watch fliers were found folded in bags at the end of driveways on South Freeport Road in Freeport and Route 201 in Topsham on Monday.

It was unknown who distributed them. Topsham Police Chief Chris Lewis said the bags were weighted with rocks and likely thrown from a vehicle.

Freeport Police Chief Susan Nourse said she notified the state Attorney General’s Office of the fliers, but said the AG’s office may not take any action.

To bring an action under the Maine Civil Rights Act, the AG must have evidence of violence, threats of violence or property damage motivated by bias. Additionally, the office must show it was motivated by bias based on race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation.

“We are talking about free speech,” Nourse said.

The way the fliers were distributed is considered littering but the flier itself is only informational.

“It’s not listing a threat to a specific person or group of people although the KKK is traditionally directed toward people’s color,” Nourse said.

Bailey Ruth, 16, of Topsham said when he first saw the flier Monday morning his reaction was “mostly of disgust, with the fact that groups like that can feel comfortable coming out because of what our country is turning into because of Donald Trump and the things that he’s done.”

It’s unnerving that white supremacist groups feel comfortable going around and passing out pamphlets like that to families, he said.

A junior at Mt. Ararat High School, Ruth took the flier to school with him Monday. His English teacher let him read it aloud to the class before he gave it to the school resource officer.

Certain groups, Ruth said, feel “like they have the back of our commander in chief, in that he feels the same way that they do against certain races; against Muslims or Jewish people.”

Ruth said this is the first time he has seen any KKK activity in the area.

A community forum was held in Freeport Tuesday night to discuss the town’s values in answer to the KKK fliers.

Ruth said if there were something similar taking place locally, “I’d like to be part of it. That’s my town and I don’t want people to feel unsafe.”

“While they have their rights to pass around fliers like that, we can’t let things like that get to us and lead to acts of hate,” Ruth said. “We just have to come together and realize we’re all human, we’re all equal. We can’t breed a culture of hate.”

dmoore@timesrecord.com

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