MT. GREENWOOD — A Far Southwest Side alderman is asking police and the city to investigate white supremacist fliers left on cars in Mt. Greenwood.
Ald. Matt O’Shea (19th) described the fliers left on cars July 18 in the 11000 block of South Saint Louis Avenue as “racially inflammatory propaganda” in an email to residents.
The alderman said he contacted the Chicago Police Department and the city’s Commission on Human Relations and asked them to investigate.
“The rhetoric espoused in this [flier] has no place in our community,” O’Shea wrote. “It does not reflect the value of our residents and will not be tolerated. Hatred has no home in the 19th Ward.”
O’Shea encouraged residents who need to report discrimination or hate crimes to call a Cook County Sheriff’s Office hotline at 773-674-4357.
“I’d like to thank the resident who brought this matter to our attention and reiterate our entire community’s commitment to an open, welcoming, inclusive atmosphere for all people,” O’Shea wrote in the email.
The fliers were topped with the words, “WHITE LIVES MATTER,” as seen in a photo of a flier from Patch, which first reported on the incident. The fliers directed people to “pro-white websites,” including ones that call for a “white nation” in the United States and espouse anti-Semitic and racist ideals.
The fliers also recommended “real WWII history” documentaries, though the two documentaries visible on the photo of the flier have been debunked widely online and at least one comes from a man, Kyle Hunt, who is part of the “pro-white movement.”
The Southwest Chicago Diversity Collaborative, which works to support minority communities in and around the 19th ward, contacted O’Shea about the incident. The group was “very glad” to see O’Shea’s response, according to a statement.
“Silence suggests both complicity and permissiveness,” according to a statement from the collaborative. “It’s up to all of us to speak up and out when racism occurs.”
Similar fliers were left on lawns in suburban Tinley Park recently.