John Coletti/Getty Images
For the second time in a week, residents in a Houston neighborhood woke up to the sight of dozens of racist flyers strewn across their properties.
Atascocita, a Houston suburb, was papered in a variety of offensive flyers Saturday night, leaving distraught homeowners to clean up their own neighborhood. The flyers, each contained in a plastic baggie, feature Adolf Hitler and the phrase “we can do it again,” according to ABC News 13.
“I was just so livid,” one distraught resident, who spent three hours picking up the flyers from the ground, told the TV station. “I didn't want my neighbors waking up to find this trash in our neighborhood, you know, this hate. It's upsetting.”
At least one resident told the station that her home surveillance camera caught a vehicle driving through the neighborhood and throwing the plastic baggies out the window onto the street. Residents have been in touch with local law enforcement about the flyers, according to the news station, but the Harris County Constable did not respond to VICE News’ request for comment.
The Jewish community hasn’t been the only target of bigoted literature in Houston. Just a week earlier, residents in Copperfield, 28 miles northwest of Houston, say they were inundated with a variety of flyers featuring racist caricatures of Black people.
“Think about it! At the current rate of decline, what will America's major cities look like in ten years?" the flyer said, according to the News Observer.
The flyers were left on cars and on residential doors, including those belonging to members of the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and featured the name of the white supremacist organization “Aryan Freedom Network.”
The Aryan Freedom Network organization has amassed a small following on alternative social network platforms like Gab where its account leaves mostly racist, homophobic comments on other pages. On its official website, leafleting is listed as a part of the group’s efforts to spread its white supremacist rhetoric legally. Whether it’s connected to the recent incidents in Atascocita has not been confirmed.
The two incidents in Texas are part of a wider, unexplained trend across the country. Similarly, racist flyers being dispersed by unknown actors have been reported in neighborhoods in Colorado, Florida, California, Maryland and Wisconsin, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Many of the flyers disseminated in those states last month featured rhetoric that blames the COVID-19 pandemic on Jewish people.Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.
Atascocita, a Houston suburb, was papered in a variety of offensive flyers Saturday night, leaving distraught homeowners to clean up their own neighborhood. The flyers, each contained in a plastic baggie, feature Adolf Hitler and the phrase “we can do it again,” according to ABC News 13.
“I was just so livid,” one distraught resident, who spent three hours picking up the flyers from the ground, told the TV station. “I didn't want my neighbors waking up to find this trash in our neighborhood, you know, this hate. It's upsetting.”
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At least one resident told the station that her home surveillance camera caught a vehicle driving through the neighborhood and throwing the plastic baggies out the window onto the street. Residents have been in touch with local law enforcement about the flyers, according to the news station, but the Harris County Constable did not respond to VICE News’ request for comment.
The Jewish community hasn’t been the only target of bigoted literature in Houston. Just a week earlier, residents in Copperfield, 28 miles northwest of Houston, say they were inundated with a variety of flyers featuring racist caricatures of Black people.
“Think about it! At the current rate of decline, what will America's major cities look like in ten years?" the flyer said, according to the News Observer.
The flyers were left on cars and on residential doors, including those belonging to members of the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and featured the name of the white supremacist organization “Aryan Freedom Network.”
The Aryan Freedom Network organization has amassed a small following on alternative social network platforms like Gab where its account leaves mostly racist, homophobic comments on other pages. On its official website, leafleting is listed as a part of the group’s efforts to spread its white supremacist rhetoric legally. Whether it’s connected to the recent incidents in Atascocita has not been confirmed.
The two incidents in Texas are part of a wider, unexplained trend across the country. Similarly, racist flyers being dispersed by unknown actors have been reported in neighborhoods in Colorado, Florida, California, Maryland and Wisconsin, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Many of the flyers disseminated in those states last month featured rhetoric that blames the COVID-19 pandemic on Jewish people.Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.