Ku Klux Klan propaganda blankets Whittier neighborhood

Residents in a Whittier neighborhood awoke Sunday to find fliers advertising the Klu Klux Klan on their front lawns, authorities said.

Those living in the 5400 block of Adele Avenue received plastic bags containing the fliers with KKK propaganda, a rock and a lollipop, the Whittier Police Department said.

“When I first read it, I thought it was a hoax,” said Stella Paquin, a longtime Whittier resident who found the fliers on her front lawn.

But as she read the commentary on African Americans contained in the fliers – which included a phone number and mailing address for the Loyal White Knights of the Klu Klux Klan – she realized she was not the victim of a prank.

“I have never heard or read anything that impacted me so much to think, ‘My goodness, there are just such hateful people,’” Paquin said. “Whittier is a very quaint town. This really shocked us.”

According to Whittier police, the pamphlets contained no specific threats, so investigators did not find any crime occurred.

The distribution of white supremacist propaganda in Whittier follows similar incidents in Orange County. Last week, about 100 homes in Fullerton received KKK fliers – also inside plastic bags with a rock and a piece of candy – criticizing blacks, Latinos and Jewish people, according to Fullerton police Sgt. Kathryn Hamel.

On Jan. 18, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a Santa Ana neighborhood was blanketed with KKK fliers. Last summer, residents in Orange awoke to find similar packets, according to the Santa Ana police Department.

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