June 14--Many residents of two Butler County mobile home communities continue to talk about fliers urging them to join the Ku Klux Klan.
Most wonder why they received the fliers that urge -- in a presidential election year -- to "Save our Land. Join the Klan."
The fliers, each tucked inside a plastic sandwich bag weighed down with a rock, were thrown in driveways at Jack's Mobile Homes in Buffalo Township, off Route 356, Saxony Estates, off Dinnerbell Road, in Jefferson Township, and elsewhere in the county early Monday.
On the fliers, a toll-free phone number and web address for the "Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan" is printed below a drawing of a Klansman holding a burning torch while sitting on a rearing horse, apparently ready to charge.
Beneath is the slogan, "For God, Race and Nation!"
One of the rocks cracked a pickup's windshield of the community's on-site manager, said Michele Jack, who owns both of the well-kept mobile home communities.
"We've never had anything like this. It scared a few of our residents," Jack said. She has learned the fliers also were distributed elsewhere in Buffalo Township and in Chicora, Butler County.
The fliers mainly troubled people in the mobile home communities.
A man who has lived in Jack's Mobile Homes about nine years said the community is quiet by nature.
"This really surprises me," Don Anthony said. "They're idiots. This is a nice community."
On another street, Arthur Pillart Jr. didn't mince words, either.
"I think this is ridiculous," he said. "Why here?"
Richard Snyder, who has lived in the mobile home park for 19 years, said his wife saw the plastic bag in their driveway on Monday.
"What are you going to do?" he asked, adding that his mother had a KKK membership card in the 1930s. "They're in Pennsylvania. But this could be someone just causing problems. It's hard to say," he said, urging a "live and let live" philosophy.
"There haven't been racial problems since I've been here," Snyder said. "Everyone has rights, yes, but you can't take rights away from anyone else."
Neighbor Ruth Cloutman still doesn't like the fliers. "It's just terrible," she said.
Saxony Estates is no more than 400 yards outside of Saxonburg, and the mood there yesterday was the same.
"This doesn't make sense to me. I think it's foolish," Glen Widenhofer said. "You want to talk to someone, you knock on the door and talk. You don't just throw a bag with a rock in it."
"This is definitely odd for us. It's a little scary," said Alessandra Brink, who recently moved from northern Virginia with Nick Leslie.
"We were wondering, 'What's this?'" Leslie said. "It's not like Virginia."
A long-time Saxony Estates resident said she noticed the bags while she was walking her dog.
"I'm all for our rights to speak and think. But this is from a group that separates us," said Pattie Steward, whose son and daughter are in the military and whose husband was in the Marines in the 1970s. "We should be working to get together and help this country."
One of the family's vehicles displays a sticker declaring "Marine Corps: Defending your freedoms since 1775."
John Sobkiewicz stopped his riding mower to comment.
"I trust the man upstairs," Sobkiewicz said. "He's the only one you can trust in."
Incident receives little response
Buffalo Township police said they are investigating the damage to the pickup.
Butler County District Attorney Richard A. Goldinger said he isn't aware of any related investigation.
A spokeswoman for the FBI's Pittsburgh office said she didn't know about the fliers, but asked for information about them.
Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks the Klan nationwide, said he didn't have information about the "Traditionalist American Knights" in the state or the phone number.
But he said "literature drops" are common across the country.
"The reason they put the fliers in bags with rocks and throw them is they can go to prison if they put them into mail boxes." Potok said. "It's a federal law."
A call to the 888 number didn't result in a return phone call Wednesday.
A Klansman's take
Frank Ancona, imperial wizard of the Traditionalist American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, said in a phone interview late Wednesday from Park Hills, Mo., that he was not aware of a flier drive being conducted in this area.
He said anybody could go the website and print the flier, but also said his group routinely conducts flier drives.
While Ancona remained unsure whether someone from his group was involved, when he was told of the scope of the distribution, he said, "it sounds like an organized drive."
"I'm glad someone up there is getting the word out," he said.
When asked for a local organizer's contact information, Ancona said, "I took an oath not to do that."
He doubted that someone from his group would weight the makeshift flier bags with rocks large enough to crack a windshield.
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Copyright 2012 - The Valley News-Dispatch, Tarentum, Pa.
