AMHERST — Flyers from a white supremacist group, found on the ground in the Echo Village neighborhood over Independence Day weekend, are being investigated by Amherst police.
On Sunday morning, the flyers from the group calling itself the Nationalist Social Club, a “pro-white, street-oriented fraternity,” were turned over to police after being discovered by a woman walking her dog, said Police Chief Scott Livingstone.
Livingstone said the flyers appear to be similar to those that have been distributed across the state, and may have simply been tossed out of a car window rather than targeting any specific resident.
“We are asking that if any individuals in the Echo Hill neighborhood who may have captured anything suspicious on a home security system to contact us, as this is an open investigation,” Livingstone said.
Police in both Hamilton and Chatham issued advisories this week about similar literature being distributed in their Massachusetts towns, with the flyers placed in plastic baggies. In East Providence, Rhode Island last month, two men were arrested after they were found hanging similar flyers in that town, and authorities in Enfield, Connecticut, also have reported the distribution of identical flyers.
The group, identified as a neo-Nazi organization by the ADL, provides its email and social media contacts, and appears to be seeking new members. The flyers state, “No matter how you find this, if you are a man of European descent in the New England area that wishes to see a better future for your people, contact us to get to work.”
While distribution of such literature in Amherst is uncommon, a similar effort was made in the spring of 2017 on the University of Massachusetts campus, when Identity Evropa, an organization classified as a white nationalist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, placed flyers on vehicles and fixtures in a parking lot.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
