White Nationalist Paperings

 

In a more disturbing bit of local government news, there was another incident of a white nationalist group papering an area with fliers promoting white nationalist themes and advertising a possible new local chapter. From the News-Gazette earlier this week:

White-nationalist group's flyers pop up again in downtown Champaign
A white-nationalist group posted flyers on lampposts in downtown Champaign, the second time the group has done so in the area in recent months.

The flyers were from an organization called Patriot Front, considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League...

Watchdog groups say Patriot Front is a splinter group of Vanguard America, a self-proclaimed fascist group that supported white nationalism but disbanded after the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., last year, where one protester was killed.

One of the group's flyers has an anti-immigrant message, and another espouses the group's view that European-Americans conquered America and the country belongs to their descendants.

Kris Koester, spokesman for the Champaign Public Works Department, said light poles "are a combination of responsibilities."

But he said, "if our staff saw them, they would probably take them down. We don't allow postings of any particular messaging."

More at the full article here. A previous campus papering also had volunteers and staff removing posters placed where prohibited in a balance of limits and protections on free speech rights. From the News-Gazette last October:

UI students, staff scrape down white-nationalist stickers plastered across campus
More than 200 stickers from a white-nationalist organization were plastered on lampposts and signs around the University of Illinois campus last weekend...

UI spokeswoman Robin Kaler said the campus removes flyers and other posts when they violate the rules.

"It has nothing to do with the content," she said. "People have a First Amendment right. It doesn't matter what it says, if it's in a place where it doesn't belong," it gets removed, she said.

Courts have ruled that universities and other government entities can enforce "time, place and manner restrictions" on speech but not the content itself.

Facilities and services spokesman Steve Breitwieser said administrators asked that any illegal stickers be removed, and staff members, mostly painters, found about 60 across campus. The majority were on stop signs and street signs, including several near the UI Ice Arena, one adjacent to Lincoln Hall, and others at Sixth and Green streets and Goodwin Avenue and Green Street, he said. 

That older article is available here. More on the evolution of the group from its neo-Nazi roots to their recent papering campaigns across the country at the SPLC here. A recent post on campus bias tracking and possible new rules to stop harassment of teachers, including by white nationalists here: Campus Bias Update. There was also recent news on the local white nationalist terrorist attack with guilty pleas by two of the suspects. More on those attacks and the resulting loss of surgical abortion services in the area here: White Nationalist Terrorists Plead Guilty.