Abbotsford police will be consulting with the BC Hate Crime team after another discovery of KKK literature being distributed in the community.
According to police, they received a complaint from a resident in the 35200-block of Marshall Road that a plastic bag containing hate literature had been thrown on his driveway on Jan. 15.
After investigating, the officers found more than 70 bags on several East Abbotsford streets. The bags contained pamphlets that make demeaning comments about the assassinated American Baptist minister and Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Police believe the pamphlets were made to coincide with King’s birthday (Jan. 15) and the U.S.’s national holiday.
Three security videos from the area show a suspect vehicle that appears to be a dark-coloured Dodge Ram pickup truck. Police are examining the footage closely to see if they can identify the licence plate number. Additionally security video is being analyzed by the APD’s Forensic Identification Unit and several of the plastic bags are undergoing fingerprint analysis.
This is the second time in the last three months the Abbotsford community has been assaulted with KKK literature.
In October 2016, hate literature was delivered to the front doorsteps of dozens of homes in Mission, Chilliwack and Abbotsford claiming to be from the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan on his property. The flyer read, in part: “Yes, white lives do matter. We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” It then encouraged people to phone a Klan hotline.
So far police have not made any arrests in the October 2016 incident but the investigation is ongoing.
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Abbotsford Police said the bags used in this recent incident were weighted down with rice.
MacDonald said he hopes the two incidents were done by the same party.
“I wouldn’t like to think that there are any more like-minded individuals but I guess you can never rule them out,” he said. “But we’ve got the same MO, we have the zip-locked bags with rice in them to weigh them down with the same garbage inside.”
The APD said they appreciate the community members who reported the recent incident and expressed their disgust.
Abbotsford police have asked for help from the B.C. Hate Crimes Team so investigators experienced in dealing with racists documents can look at the pamphlets.
While a large section of Abbotsford is on the Canada-U.S. border, MacDonald said it seems like a waste of time to dissuade Canadians from celebrating an American holiday.
Anyone with information about these incidents are asked to contact the APD or call Crime Stoppers.
~ with files from Canadian Press
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