White supremacist group's fliers alarm residents

Alliance held rally in Gainesville this year

Atlanta Journal-Constitution/July 16, 2001
By Larry Hartstein

A few months after a neo-Nazi group held a rally in Gainesville, the group's literature is showing up on car windshields in Gwinnett County. The fliers, distributed in store parking lots in Buford and Lawrenceville, have alarmed some residents. One flier praises Adolf Hitler as a martyr and hero, while another proclaims, "Missing: A Future for White Children."

Buford resident Alan Myers found one of the fliers on his car after shopping at Kmart. "I knew that groups like that still existed, but it just shocked me to see that kind of thing," the 22-year-old student said. "I told a few of my friends at church about it, and there were at least a half-dozen others who had seen similar things in the area."

Myers believes it is important to speak out against such groups. "I think exposing these groups would help," he said. "People should be talking to their kids and telling them this is dangerous and that it leads to violence, jail and a pointless life."

A fellow member of Sugar Hill United Methodist Church who found a flier said he did not want to be quoted because he's afraid of reprisals. The National Alliance, based in West Virginia, is not targeting Gwinnett but all of Georgia, said local organizer Chester Doles.

"We're just trying to blanket all the areas," he said. "The immigration issue is not restricted to any one area anymore." In March, the group's "anti-immigration" rally in Gainesville drew about 40 participants and a few opponents. Doles said the group is planning a rally in Cumming in October. "We're going to do a state tour trying to raise awareness of the immigration issue," he said.

On a national level, the the Anti-Defamation League has called the white supremacist group the country's "single most dangerous organized hate group." John Elliott of Duluth, president of the Greater Atlanta Interfaith Alliance, said groups like the National Alliance are hardly a threat locally. "They have very limited effect and very limited penetration," he said. "The situation with the economy being what it is, they probably have a little bit more effect than they would have a couple years ago. In times of a poor economy, there's a lot more racial hatred and animosity.

"But I don't think they really need to be given any sort of credit as a threat," Elliott added. "Our investigations show that these activities are based on the actions of two or three people typically, who are showing their ignorance and impotence at the same time." Elliott called putting fliers on windshields "a very cowardly way that shows their pathetic nature."