BRUNSWICK

Brunswick police say they have identified the person responsible for leaving fliers that appear to link the LGBT community with communism.

Cmdr. Mark Waltz said the fliers were distributed Friday on Maine Street in the area of the First Parish Church.

Surveillance video captured a license plate that led police to the individual who distributed the fliers.

Police are not releasing the person’s name until they finish investigating and determine whether a crime was committed.

Meanwhile, police have served the individual, who is a Brunswick resident, with a harassment warning instructing them not to have contact with a complainant.

The fliers claims to be from “The Forest Brothers,” and depict a rainbow LGBTQ pride flag, an equal sign and a communist hammer and sickle symbol.

The investigation will be completed and provided to the civil rights division of the Maine Attorney General’s Office for review, according to police.

“The department appreciates the information provided by the public identifying incidents where the ‘Forest Brothers’ fliers were distributed,” a press release states.

On Monday, Brunswick Town Councilor Kathy Wilson found such a flier on her car’s windshield and reported it to police. Wilson believes the flier was placed on her car because she has a rainbow sticker on her car.

“I definitely took it as an expression of hate and I definitely took it as a threat in a way,” she said.

A representative of the Southern Poverty Law Center based in Alabama, which tracks hate groups in the United States, said last week they had never heard of a group called the Forest Brothers before. Historically, the Forest Brothers were anti-Soviet guerrilla groups that operated in the Baltics during World War II.

Wilson sits on the Human Rights Committee in Brunswick, and told The Times Record after finding the flier that the committee will look into the incident.

dmoore@timesrecord.com

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