Hate Literature Distributed in Mass.

The Associated Press/September 1, 2001

Arlington, Mass. -- Racist literature from a hate group was dropped on hundreds of lawns Saturday morning, the second time in two weeks the group's materials have appeared in a Boston suburb.

The packets of papers from the West Virginia-based National Alliance targeted a local church that sponsors Sudanese war refugees, one of whom was charged with raping a woman this past week.

The packets also included racist material identical to literature left on lawns in the predominantly Jewish town of Sharon on Aug. 18, said police Lt. Paul Dooley.

Dooley called the material "obscene," but said whoever distributed it may have only violated littering laws. The papers don't incite violence or advocate criminal action, and appear legal, he said.

"I'm sure they (the National Alliance) know how to walk the line," he said. The papers criticized St. Paul Lutheran Church for sponsoring Sudanese refugee Daniel Majok Kachuol, 19, one of a group of thousands of young refugees nicknamed the "Lost Boys of Sudan." Kachuol pleaded innocent on Monday to raping a woman.

Jeff Hackworth, 42, a spokesman for the National Alliance in Massachusetts, said the group was trying to reach out to people predisposed to their message.

He said the literature drops often result in phone calls to the organization. But the fliers were spotted by a patrolman at about 3 a.m. Saturday and Dooley said officers remove most of the hundreds of packets before residents woke up.