ASHWABUENON (NBC 26) — Pamphlets promoting white power are popping up in one northeast Wisconsin neighborhood, and people here say there's simply no room for it.
Neighbors say they quickly jumped into action to pick them up, and law enforcement recommends tossing them in the trash if you see them.
"This one says 'we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children, distributed randomly without malicious intent' by an organization that is entirely malicious and they understand their intent. So, hiding it behind kind words that are almost a legality still doesn't make it right," said Cory Akerberg of Ashwaubenon.
Akerberg lives in Ashwabuenon and said he and a friend jumped into action Tuesday morning to pick them up before anyone else could see them.
He says they were tucked in plastic bags and tossed in his and his neigbhors' yards.
"I was like, 'Well, there's a lot of kids in this neighborhood. I need to do something about it.' So I started walking down with my buddy and picking up as many as we could," Akerberg said.
We reached out to Ashwaubenon Public Safety, and they say it falls under the first amendment.
According to Ashwaubenon Deputy Chief Nick Kozloski, "We did receive one report from a citizen this morning but otherwise we have not received anything else regarding these pamphlets. Unfortunately, agree or disagree, this falls under protected first amendment speech, and there is nothing law enforcement can do to stop people from exercising that right. The biggest thing we can suggest for concerned citizens is that they throw the pamphlets away and carry on with their day."
That was a similar message echoed to Akerberg when he reported it.
"They did tell me that it's just a freedom of speech issue at this point. There is really nothing that can do with it at this point, which I do understand that, but I still feel like it needed to be reported, because now this is in our neighborhoods," Akerberg said.
Akerberg says he would like to exercise his freedom of speech to those who chose to do this anonymously.
"It has no place in the world. It never had any place in the world when the war ended 80 years ago. That's something you should learn about in history books. That's not something that should be a relevant modern day conversation. We should be well past that type of prejudice," Akerberg said.
Even though people anonymously dropping off these pamphlets are exercising their freedom of speech, you can still report it to authorities.
