Flyers connected to white supremacist group show up in Wauconda, Mundelein
Anti-immigrant flyers containing the address of a white supremacist website were distributed in neighborhoods in Wauconda and Mundelein last weekend.
The propaganda was delivered in small plastic bags weighed down with rocks. It urged people to "report any and all illegal aliens" to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security tip line.
The flyer included the address for a website owned by a group called the Patriot Front, which the Anti-Defamation League civil rights group describes as "a white supremacist group whose members maintain that their ancestors conquered America and bequeathed it solely to them."
The Patriot Front "espouses racism, anti-Semitism and intolerance under the guise of preserving the 'ethnic and cultural origins' of their European ancestors," according to the league.
Both Mundelein and Wauconda have significant Hispanic populations.
Wauconda police said they received two complaints from homeowners who found the flyers on their driveways before 4 a.m. Saturday. The pieces were delivered in the Northwoods and Apple Country neighborhoods, Police Chief David Wermes said.
Wauconda Trustee Tim Howe said people in the Liberty Lakes neighborhood received the literature, too.
Mundelein Deputy Police Chief Don Hansen said his department received three complaints from homeowners about the propaganda. Two complaints came from Cambridge Country North subdivision and one came from the Hampton Reserve subdivision.
Although distributing flyers is an expression of speech protected by the First Amendment, both Mundelein and Wauconda have ordinances prohibiting people from canvassing a neighborhood with flyers or literature.
"People who receive a flyer should contact us with a description of the vehicle or the person involved so we can engage in a conversation with them regarding canvassing flyers within village limits," Hansen said.
Mundelein Mayor Steve Lentz was outraged by the flyers.
"This type of behavior is intolerable in our community," Lentz said. "We are an ethnically diverse and welcoming community."