Updated at 8:45 p.m. The Alexandria Police Department is investigating the posting of racist fliers in the Potomac Yard neighborhood of the city.
Four fliers were discovered posted in the 2100 block of Potomac Avenue on March 15, according to a resident who provided photos and information to ALXnow.
The resident notified the city of the “graffiti” via Alex311, and the fliers were subsequently removed from a light post and electrical box near Potomac Yard Park.
One of the fliers read in bold letters, “Strong families make strong nations,” a slogan used in fliers attributed to the white nationalist group Patriot Front.
Another flier is more explicit, reading: “Reclaim America: Patriot Front.”
ALXnow received word of more fliers and stickers posted around the area in February and March, and they were taken down by a longtime resident.
The group was formed after the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which found that more than 1,600 fliers attributed to the group have been found in Virginia alone.
APD said that no suspects have been identified, and posting hate speech and fliers is not a crime in Virginia.
According to the Anti-Defamation League:
- Patriot Front is a white supremacist group whose members maintain that their ancestors conquered America and bequeathed it to them, and no one else.
- Patriot Front justifies its ideology of hate and intolerance under the guise of preserving the ethnic and cultural origins of its members’ European ancestors.
- Patriot Front spreads its hateful propaganda via the internet and by distributing banners, fliers, posters, and stickers.
- Since 2019, Patriot Front has been responsible for the vast majority of white supremacist propaganda distributed in the United States.
- One of the United States’ most visible white supremacist groups, Patriot Front participates in localized “flash demonstrations” across the nation.
- While claiming loyalty to America as a nation, Patriot Front seeks to form a new state, one that advocates for the “descendants of its creators,” namely white men.
Alexandria’s Old Town and Del Ray neighborhoods were last peppered with racist fliers in 2017.