11:42 AM: Thanks to everyone who texted/e-mailed about this: Storm debris aren’t all that people are cleaning up this morning. Someone littered multiple West Seattle neighborhoods overnight with flyers like that one, in plastic bags with small rocks, promoting a white-nationalist group called Patriot Front. So far, we’ve received notes and photos (including the one above) from people in the Alki area and in neighborhoods west and northeast of The Junction. One finder reported it to SPD and tells WSB that police were coming to pick up the bagged flyers and had already responded to at least one other report, with a plan to consolidate the reports in one case. Though we haven’t heard of this group circulating its materials in West Seattle before (at least one other has), web searches show it’s turned up in other Puget Sound communities including Bellevue, as well as other states, such as Texas, where the group is reported to be based, with its founder having been cited there last year for breaking a postering law. The group’s website also lists “actions” such as having vandalized an anti-hate billboard in Tacoma.
1:35 PM: We’ve since heard from multiple sources that this was done last night in Edmonds, too.
11:35 AM MONDAY: SPD confirms the investigation and has just posted about this on SPD Blotter. The post says tips can be called in to SPD’s Bias Crimes Unit at 206-684-5550.
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