The FBI and Virginia police have banded together to investigate the troubling appearance of anti-Martin Luther King flyers that were scattered throughout Leesburg, Virginia this past weekend. At least 10 people have come forward to police with plastic sandwich bags containing papers that proudly decried King as a "communist, alcoholic, pervert." Many of these bags were filled with bird seeds, and contained a single Jolly Rancher candy.
The bird seeds may have been used as a ploy to keep the bags from flying away, which according to Daily Mail, was a tactic used in Rappahanock County, Washington last November to promote similarly troubling racist ideology. The use of a Jolly Rancher very explicitly harkens to the KKK's recruitment process, as the group distributes the candy to their followers.
Speaking with NBC Washington, Bishop Shawn Stephens reveals he was on his driveway when an unidentified women threw one of these bags directly in his direction. Stephens is hurt by these actions, as he believes King was "impactful for every group out there. He fought for them. And he was a fair gentleman. And he was a gentleman that loved all people."
Jack Oden, the first resident of Leesburg to report the sighting of one of these bags on Friday night, reveals how he believes "in free speech but if you’re going to say things or do things like that, you need to stand up in front of other people and listen to their response, doing it this way is cheap."
However, this is not the first time Leesburg has experienced a racially-insensitive flyer campaign, as just last Halloween, residents discovered recruitment fliers containing racist cartoons spewed throughout the town.