‘Shocked, offended.’ White supremacist flyers left in Stamford neighborhoods

Along with Springdale, the flyers were found in the Belltown and Pepper Ridge neighborhoods, the mayor’s office said.

Marissa Alter

Mar 14, 2023, 10:17 PM

Updated 581 days ago

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Stamford Rep. Bobby Pavia began his Sunday with a call from one of his constituents who lives in the Springdale area. She'd gone out to get the paper and found a recruitment flyer from a white supremacist group in her driveway.
“I was very shocked, offended,” Pavia told News 12. “This lady said it ruined her Sunday morning, and so I immediately alerted the director of public health and safety and the mayor's office. And then more calls just started coming in about these flyers popping up.”
Along with Springdale, the flyers were found in the Belltown and Pepper Ridge neighborhoods, the mayor’s office said. Each was in a small plastic bag with rocks. The flyers list the six New England states and their capitals and claim all are less white than they were 10 years ago. There's also a picture of an armed soldier with the words, "New Englanders! You are being replaced. Organize and resist!"
“It was disturbing,” said Carmen Hughes, the director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the city. “I think there was fear in a lot of hearts in terms of if we're getting a recruitment note like this, what could come next? And I think people are really looking for answers.”
Stamford police are now investigating in collaboration with the state’s attorney’s office and have received more than 30 calls from residents. Hughes encouraged anyone who has information about what happened or video that might’ve caught the person or vehicle to contact police.
The flyers appear to be from a New England-based neo-Nazi group called the National Social Club or NSC-131. "Its members see themselves as soldiers at war with a hostile, supposedly Jewish-controlled system they claim is plotting the extinction of the white race,” the United Jewish Federation of Stamford, New Canaan and Darien said in a statement condemning the hate literature. “The group regularly distributes replacement theory propaganda and holds small, localized flash demonstrations. Flyer drops are often used as a recruitment tool for the organization.”
“It's right in our faces in our backyard, so that's scary,” Pavia said. “This can't be tolerated. We have a zero-tolerance policy in Stamford, for this.”
“We're committed to ensuring that our residents do feel safe, are safe, feel like they belong and know that everyone's included. This is a top priority for this administration,” Hughes stressed.
The flyer dump in Stamford came just days after another white supremacist group left recruitment stickers in Westport. Police also said racist graffiti was found on the I-95 pillars, near the Saugatuck River boat launch and inside a bathroom at Compo Beach at the beginning of the month.
Overall, incidents of antisemitic and white supremacy propaganda in Connecticut rose 115% in 2022, according to a recent report from the Anti-Defamation League, which recorded 207 incidents in the state last year. ADL Connecticut Regional Director Stacey Sobel called that a historic high.
"Everyone must come together to reject hate and extremism and work towards creating a better community that does not exclude, marginalize or target any person. ADL Connecticut remains committed to working with all communities in the region to unite against hatred," Sobel said in a statement.
Anyone with information on the Stamford incidents, can call the police department’s non-emergency number at 203-977-4444.