A national Nazi group is targeting the Phoenix area as part of a national recruiting campaign coinciding with the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
This past weekend, The National Alliance, a White supremacist group based in Hillsboro, W. Va., left leaflets modeled after missing-children’s advertisements on the driveways of homes in the Moon Valley section of north Phoenix.
The leaflets blame “corrupt politicians” and “minority special-interest groups” for “abducting” the future of White children.
Callers who dial a local phone number printed on the leaflets hear a recorded message from the group’s deceased founder and chairman, William Pierce. The message warns that “millions of non-White illegal aliens are pouring into the country, rapidly changing the racial complexion of our population and the quality of the civilization that our ancestors built.”
The recording also includes anti-Semitic statements.
Pierce died in July, 2002, The National Alliance’s Web site says.
Debbie Erbstoesser, who lives in Moon Valley, said she found the flier on her driveway when she went to get the newspaper Sunday morning. She threw it in the garbage.
“I know it’s out there. I just don’t want it in my neighborhood,” Erbstoesser said. “I have no patience for hypocrisy and discrimination.”
Area resident Dorothy Anderson, a pianist, also found a leaflet on her driveway in the mostly White, middle-class neighborhood.
“It was very scary. We were surprised that something like that would end up on our doorstep. It was disconcerting. You wonder if any of those people are in our neighborhood and if they would hurt anybody,” Anderson said.
The National Alliance did not return messages seeking comment.
Bill Straus, Arizona director of the Anti-Defamation League, which monitors activities of hate groups, said The National Alliance is the largest and one of the most well-organized hate groups in the country. It has ties to extremist individuals and groups, he said. The organization has a small, but active group in the Phoenix area.
The group also uses the issue of illegal immigration as a recruiting tool, Straus said.
“Our problems at the border are being used to recruit by some of the hate groups,” Straus said.
Distributing racist fliers is not a crime, Straus said.
“People are free to express themselves and they are free to be bigots in this country,” Straus said.
Straus said people who receive racist fliers can contact the Anti-Defamation League at (602) 274-0991.