Fond du Lac Police: Neo-NAZI Cards Not "blatantly offensive racially," says report

Update III: Fond du Lac Police Captain Steve Thiry: "Obviously, people were offended," or we would not have investigated the incident. The Fond du Lac Reporter's piece gets knocked down.

Update II: Check out the xenophobic comments on the bottom of the Fond du Lac Reporter's piece, and you can understand why Neo-NAZIs in Fondy are in a word: Worrying.

Update: SPLC Maps 12 Racist Groups in Wisconsin

I read with disappointment this morning's report in the Fond du Lac Reporter on the neo-NAZIs leaving their business cards on the car windows of several participants of a Hispanic-Latino event last week.

The "Aryan Wear" group's cards asks if the car-owners had "had enough diversity?"

The card is pictured at right.

The lede in the Reporter piece by Sharon Roznik reads: "Fond du Lac police said the content of anti-diversity cards left on the car windows of several participants of last Thursday's 'HOLA!' event is neither threatening, nor blatantly offensive racially."

What?

What is so insidious about institutionalised racism is that it's sometimes difficult for some to recognize it when it presents itself, making an argument to persuade on the merits of racism [there are none] all the more difficult.

Yet I have to question either the reporting by Roznik or the perspicuity of the Fond du Lac Police. [Note: Fond du Lac Police Captain Steve Thiry just phoned and said, "Obviously, people were offended," or we would not have investigated the incident.

Are we to believe that a group advertising itself as "Aryan" and denouncing "diversity" is, as Roznik reports the Fondy police say, not "blatantly offensive racially"?

Are you kidding me? Are the Fondy police really that dumb? Did the police really make this value judgement? No.

This is the neo-NAZI group, "Aryan Wear" advertising their website and blasting "diversity": http://aryanwear.com/

The Fond du Lac Public Library is an outstanding institution serving as a counterweight to what is often a xenophobic city, a city in which "nigger" jokes were routinely heard during this writer's elementary school experience at Elizabeth Waters elementary school.

I'm curious and I'm going to follow up on these questions: Are they kidding me, since when are Aryans not "blatantly offensive racially"?

Neo-NAZI Acts at Fond du Lac Gathering on Hispanics and Latinos

Update: Washington Post - Bad Economy May Fuel Hate Groups, Experts Warn

Michael Leon

A social diversity event held last night at the Fond du Lac, Wisconsin Public Library entitled "¡Hola! Hispanic and Latino Experiences in Fond du Lac" was marred by a card left on the car windows of several participants by a neo-NAZI "Aryan Wear" group asking if the car-owners had "had enough diversity?"

The card is pictured above-right and was obtained by e-mail from Ken Hall, director of the Fond du Lac Public Library.

The card was left on the car window of a highly-placed Fond du Lac City official, Hall said he heard this morning.

Hall was an event attendee who also had the card left on his own car window last night.

Fond du Lac Police are interested in and actively investigating the incident, according to a police official contacted by phone this morning.

Hall estimates that some 70 people showed up at the event.

"Inside, there was a good discussion going on, a nice group of people exchanging views, And outside there was some coward in the night, sad. He would have been welcome to come in and talk," said Hall by phone this morning.

Another event attendee, a long-time Fond du Lac resident who parked just outside the Library on Portland Street, said, "Fondy has its racism in the past, I'm not surprised, but I feel bad to have that kind of hate staring you in the face."

A similar anti-Obama, racist flyer was left on car windows during the election, reports a Fond du Lac resident speaking on background.

The site, Aryan Wear - Aryan Wear, White Power T shirts, Nationalist Clothing, features various "white power" and NAZI paraphernalia, including a link to an audio recording of the racist fantasy book, the Turner Diaries, and patches and other body wear. [Pictured below are some of the hate links from the Aryan Wear site.]