White nationalist flyers found in Providence neighborhood
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WJAR) — Residents and business owners are on edge after white nationalist flyers were discovered in a Providence neighborhood on Independence Day.
"One of my servers found it just sitting on our doorstep," said the general manager of Diego's East Side, Fallon Derrah.
She said white supremacy is not welcome at Diego's.
The flyer says in part, "We are a social club of nationalists from New England focused on building a network of likeminded men and women dedicated to defending their lands and their people."
It goes on to say they stand for the security and prosperity of white New Englanders.
"There's a lot of scary words on here," said Bruce Burnett, the sous-chef at Diego's.
NBC 10 News contacted Providence police, who said they weren't aware of the flyers.
But on June 21, East Providence police said they arrested 32-year-old Stephen Farrea of Portsmouth and 26-year-old Austin Coni of Arizona for posting similar posters around the Gordon School in East Providence.
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The two men were charged with obstruction of an officer and violating city ordinance by posting signs to poles. They were both released on summons.
"We're in a critical point in our country where we're being divided every which way and to have something like this dropped on our community, thinking that it would be effective, I think is disgusting," said Jim Vincent, NAACP Providence Branch president.
Vincent is calling on Rhode Islanders to take action.
"All elected officials need to call this out, as well as all clergy, as well as all decent Rhode Islanders, activists or not activists," he said.
Similar incidents were reported in both Connecticut and Massachusetts this weekend.