Editorial: Klan flyers are cry for attention

Hate groups seem like the kind of thing that festers in the shadows.

Who would admit to being aligned with an organization dedicated to hatred, committed to pressuring its neighbors and tied to violence? When was the last time you saw an obituary where someone’s long list of associations included a hate group alongside a service club, a church and a fraternity?

On Saturday, flyers appeared in Brackenridge, touting the Trinity White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

They were not exactly recruitment posters. They advocated “reparations for whites.” They told residents of the Allegheny County borough to rest easy — the “Klan was AWAKE.” They urged that crime and drug deals be reported to the Klan, as though extremist groups were legitimate authorities.

And Brackenridge was not alone. The same scattering of flyers occurred near the campus of Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that tracks hate groups, called the Trinity White Knights “small and struggling” in March. That was shortly after its leader, William Bader, was cited for littering in Cincinnati. The litter? Flyers thrown from his vehicle. He was later found guilty of directing others to do the same.

This is not the first foray of the Klan into Western Pennsylvania. There is more than a century of history telling the story of hate groups here. In 1923, there was a gathering of about 25,000 Klansmen in Scott Township.

They donned their hooded regalia and marched down the streets of Carnegie. They burned a cross and welcomed 1,000 new members. That was a period of power for the Klan, when its focus was on not just the Black community but Catholics, Jews and immigrants.

That is not what the Klan is today. It operates largely in darkness — a diminished monster that remembers its glory days. Going on flyer runs to spread its propaganda is how it tries to reclaim them.

“We are here!” it shouts, like a toddler throwing a tantrum in a grocery store. “Look here!”

We should keep careful track of them. Indiana Borough Police are right to put out a statement opposing hate activity and pledging to investigate and prosecute appropriately. The Southern Poverty Law Center is right to watch and report on the groups and their trends.

But the attention we give them should be disdain and contempt — never the reaction they so desperately want. They do not deserve our fear. They do not merit anyone’s acceptance.

Cincinnati had the right idea in responding to Bader’s attempt to grow the Trinity White Knights with a flurry of flyers tossed from a moving car: issue a citation.

That response documents the activity. It imposes a penalty. And it acknowledges the flyers for what they are — and what the movement behind them has become.

Trash.