By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
“I thought it was just a Christmas thing, you know, at first,” said Asad Rashid.
At first glance, Rashid says, the flier looks harmless, proclaiming: “Without Christ, there is no Christmas.”
But it’s from the Loyal White Knights of the KKK — the Ku Klux Klan. Bagged in plastic and weighted with pebbles, 75 to 100 of these Klan fliers appeared on lawns and porches across suburban Rutherford this weekend, including Rashid’s.
“That’s shocking, and it’s a little scary for New Jersey. You wouldn’t think that would be in New Jersey,” Rashid said.
“I don’t think this town is that kind of town,” said Rutherford resident Aylin Coleri.
“In the ’30s, yeah, Jersey had one of the biggest organizations of Ku Klux Klan in South Jersey, but that was the ’30s and this is, what, 60 years later?” asked Bill Cashin. When asked if he is surprised, he said, “Yeah.”
“They’re out there,” said Police Chief John Russo.
Russo doesn’t think the Klan targeted Rutherford for any specific reason.
“You can’t turn a blind eye to it. You need to educate yourself. Obviously, there’s a lot of ignorant rhetoric with what they’re passing out here in the pamphlet. But to turn a blind eye to it would be a disservice. I think you need to know what they’re about, the message they’re trying to get out,” he said.
We asked a former KKK member from Millville. Joe Bednarsky Jr. led a small Klan chapter, but quit in 2008.
“They’re pretty much broken up and they’re like desperately seeking members because there’s only a handful of them operating in different parts of New Jersey. There’s probably about maybe three or four of them up in that area where they had put those fliers,” he said.
He says they do it at night, looking for certain kinds of towns.
“They try to target white collar communities. Sometimes they’ll do it as an act of intimidation,” he said.
New Jersey reported more than 550 bias incidents in 2012 — down 9 percent from the prior year. The most-frequently targeted race then — blacks, at 34 percent. Most-targeted religion — Jewish at 33 percent. While investigators reported the fliers to State Police, this case isn’t bias, it’s recruitment. And New Jersey’s not the only target. Fliers also appeared around neighborhoods in West Babylon and the Hamptons earlier this year.
The Klan returned our phone call and explained the fliers.
“To let people know that white people also have a voice, that we’re still around,” said James Moore, Imperial Kludd, White Knights of KKK.
“This is how they do this, how they get their message out. It happens down south, in Florida and the Carolinas. And now in Rutherford,” Russo said.
We did call the phone number that’s listed on the pamphlet. It’s a recording that opens with a barrage of racial, ethnic and gender slurs that includes almost everyone. Whoever’s left is urged to join.