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Bags with KKK Flyers and Lollipops Found In Luzerne County

LUZERNE COUNTY — KKK flyers have been found on the lawns of homes throughout Luzerne County and could be linked to a national Klan recruitment effort. The...
kkk-flyers

LUZERNE COUNTY -- KKK flyers have been found on the lawns of homes throughout Luzerne County and could be linked to a national Klan recruitment effort.

The Boston Globe reported similar flyers have also been found on lawns coast to coast - from California, to Kansas, to here in Pennsylvania.

A KKK recruitment flyer was found in the yard of a home on Walnut Street in Wilkes-Barre Township.

It was put in a zip lock bag with rocks.

However, some of these KKK recruitment bags have been found with lollipops inside, leaving people questioning if the clan is targeting or trying to recruit children.

The recruitment flyers have a picture of a hooded Klan member and state: "You can sleep tonight knowing the Klan is awake.”

One woman in Wilkes-Barre Township said the flyer in a zip lock bag was found on her next door neighbor’s lawn. “They were upset. She had to explain who the KKK were to the kids. They were upset. The kids were upset," said  Rose Jagodinski.

The Klan has a long history of violent hate crimes and spewing hate speech.

People in the neighborhoods where flyers were found do not agree with that speech, and some are still form with the right of free speech.  “I don’t like it, but I guess they have a right to do it,” said one resident.

The only legal trouble for whoever is throwing these baggies with flyers could face is a citation for littering. Police say they are more concerned with the message this may be trying to spread, though.

With racial tensions erupting in cities like Charlotte, authorities in Luzerne County don’t want these fliers or the Klan deepening a divide. "This may be an off-shoot of all this - that they want to take that divide that exists today, and there is nobody that is going to deny that there is one, and make it even wider than it is,” said Wilkes-Barre Township Police Chief Ronald Smith.

Authorities also say that the lollipops inside some of the bags are also concerning. “The fact that they are putting a lollipop in it -- to attract children to pick these things up -- that kind of concerns me,” added Chief Smith.

Other than citing those throwing the flyers on lawns authorities say they can’t do much.

Authorities say they want to know who is doing this and ask anyone who has seen it happen to take down a description of the person, the car, or even try to get a license plate of the person placing the bags.

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