‘Not Acceptable’: Man Faces No Arrest or Criminal Charges for Scattering KKK Flyers Through Black Ohio Town Weeks After Residents Expelled White Supremacist Demonstrators from Highway
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Just weeks after a group of neo-Nazis gathered near a historically Black town in Ohio to display swastikas and shout racial slurs, a man was caught scattering Ku Klux Klan flyers all over the community.
About a dozen people clad in black clothing and wearing red face masks stood on an overpass and were caught on traffic cameras waving flags with swastikas near the town of Lincoln Heights on Feb. 7.
Images and videos of the protest and the standoff that ensued between Black residents and the neo-Nazi members were shared all over social media.
Local law enforcement intervened and ended the rally, but not one of the demonstrators was arrested, despite terrorizing Black drivers and passersby with racial slurs and hate speech.
Days after the demonstration, several armed citizens were seen patrolling the streets of Lincoln Heights to offset the wave of fear and unease that surfaced among residents who shared concerns about authorities allowing the neo-Nazi group to leave without consequences.
Over the weekend, the community was targeted again after dozens of flyers attributed to the Trinity White Knights Ku Klux Klan were found strewn across the town.
Police stopped 47-year-old William Bader after he was seen throwing the flyers from his car on Sunday, Feb. 23.
According to WLWT, when police searched his car, they found the flyers as well as a white sheet that is “commonly worn by KKK members” and a homemade banner that was hung on the overpass in the aftermath of the neo-Nazi rally that read, “Peace and Love.”
For the pamphlet distribution, Bader was only ticketed for littering. He was not arrested and faces no criminal charges.
“The Sheriff’s Office does not condone nor agree with hate speech that is proliferated by anyone, including Nazis and the KKK,” Hamilton County Sheriff Charmaine McGuffey said in a statement. “The sheriff’s office remains committed to working with the residents in the village of Lincoln Heights to ensure their safety.”
Advocates, local law enforcement, city officials, and faith leaders recently held a meeting to discuss solutions to counteract the hateful incidents that have plagued the Lincoln Heights community in recent weeks.
The sheriff, who attended the meeting, said that she and her office are “doing our best to hold these people accountable.”
“To have that kind of hatred, it’s not acceptable anywhere, so we will run them out of town, run them out of the country,” said Cincinnati Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney. “America is not a place for Nazis, we don’t do that here. We don’t do the hate here.”
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