Anne Arundel County Executive Janet S. Owens and eight other top county officials condemned a white supremacist group yesterday for its recent distribution of racist literature and the airing of a hate video on a public access channel.
The joint statement followed the discovery of a flurry of racist, anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant fliers within the past month in several county neighborhoods. County leaders recently established a group to monitor and respond to such incidents.
County officials said the fliers and the video were distributed by the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi organization based in West Virginia. The National Alliance has been linked to the dissemination of such material within the county and in neighboring jurisdictions for years.
While hateful speech is constitutionally protected and flier distribution is allowed as long as it doesn't involve trespassing, Owens and other county officials said it was important to denounce the message.
