Waterloo officials are taking notice after flyers for a hate group were left around town over earlier this month.
Mayor Quentin Hart said he was deeply disturbed about reports of resident finding recruitment flyers for the Aryan Freedom Network.
“As a dedicated public servant, who has recently been the target of discrimination and threats, I want to be clear: There is no place for hate groups in Waterloo,” he said in a prepared statement. “These actions not only target individuals based on their race or ethnicity but also stoke increased division among us. ... It’s unfortunate that on (a) day dedicated to our brave veterans that have fought for our freedoms, regardless of race, gender or difference, we have to pause to comment about racist supremacists that want further division.”
Part of a recruitment flyer found in a Waterloo yard on Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024.
Josh Surprenant went to Facebook on Sunday, Nov. 10, to report he found a flyer in his yard.
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The leaflet – which encouraged people to “Take a stand. Join today!” and included a Nazi SS deaths head logo, an address for a white power website and the disclaimer “distributed randomly without malicious intent” – was inside a clear plastic bag and weighted with a rock to keep it from blowing away.
“So this was just left outside in our yard for us. But we are overreacting, right?” Surprenant wrote on his post.
Waterloo police said they received two reports of the flyers, one in the area of Clough and Arden streets and another in the 500 block of Magnolia Parkway.
“We’re asking people if they have any video to contact us,” said Capt. Jason Feaker with the Waterloo Police Department.
Hart said the U.S. Department of Justice has been contacted, and urged people with information to call the police department at 319-291-2515.
The Anti Defamation League says the Aryan Freedom Network is a white supremacist group that started in 2018 in DeKalb, Texas, and has chapters in 25 states.
Court records indicate the group’s mission is to create a “white Aryan homeland in North America” and end non-white immigration.
The AFN website includes pages for survival and prepper items, asking “Are you ready for RaHoWa?” – short for racial holy war – and a link to a white pride home schooling page purported to be connected with a KKK imperial wizard.
There is also a page offering advice for distributing flyers, which encourages members to file lawsuits if they are arrested for distributing leaflets in public places.
According to the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate group activities, Iowans reported 136 cases of hate group flyers since January 2023. Four of those involved leaflets left at college campuses.
Activity in Iowa spiked in August 2023, according to the organization.
