Racist flyers posted in downtown Spokane
Posters from a prominent white nationalist group with a history of posting material in the Spokane area were discovered over the weekend at a downtown intersection.
The flyers appear to belong to Identity Evropa, a white supremacist group whose former leader helped organize last year’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The pair of posters were attached to two lamp posts at Sprague Avenue and Jefferson Street. They appear to to be the same type of flyers that hit Gonzaga and Eastern Washington University campuses last month. They show the group’s logo, and the slogan “Our generation, our future, our last chance.”
A representative from Identity Evropa did not immediately return a request seeking comment.
Rick Eichstaedt, the executive director of the Center for Justice, said he was worried this recent activity was indicative of a trend. Since February last year, racist flyers have been discovered multiple times in Spokane on college campuses and in North Idaho, where police identified a man in Sandpoint believed responsible for posting racist propaganda targeting city leaders.
“It’s disturbing, Eichstaedt said. “The struggle communities have now is how do you tackle this?”
At area colleges, students, faculty and staff held “unity rallies” in response to the posters. At EWU on Feb. 27, around 200 students gathered and said the flyers were evidence of deep-seated racism on their campus and in the broader community.
At Gonzaga, college spokeswoman Mary Joan Hahn said eight or nine posters were located across campus on Feb. 23. On March 7, students and professors organized a rally similar to Eastern’s.
According to a recent report from the Anti-Defamation League, in the last ten months groups like Identity Evropa have been hanging banners and posters in public areas at an “unprecedented” rate.
The A.D.L reported that from May 2017 through March 12 of this year, white supremacists hung banners from roof tops and highway overpasses 72 times, at an average of seven times a month.
On Twitter, Identity Evropa often takes credit for flyers posted in cities and on college campuses, often coming with hundreds of retweets and favorites. On Feb. 18, the group tweeted the posters on Eastern’s campus.
As of Monday morning, there was no tweet taking credit for the flyers in downtown Spokane.