66 Comments - Come one man! - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 9:47 am: This also happened in 2010. - Plutocrat03 - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 9:52 am: I was south of the Mason-Dixon line over the weekend and the locals there told me about baggies with literature and small rocks being tossed on to driveways and lawns. Stress, and fear seems to always bring out the crazies. - Roadiepig - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 9:53 am: Sorry if this offends, but it appears the far far right and the klan have one thing in common. Didn’t notice and white hoods on the heads of the folks yelling at the children in the INS buses at the protests last week though - modest proposal - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 9:54 am: Why is the south side of Chicago not being targeted? - Streator Curmudgeon - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 9:55 am: Well, we’ve got our share of wackies in Streator, but even they are too smart to get mixed up with the Klan. - wordslinger - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 9:55 am: Quite a battle back in the day in Southern Illinois between the Klan and bootleggers. Guess who won, lol. Many of the bootleggers were Catholic and immigrants so, of course, they just didn’t fit into the KKK vision of America, you see. http://www.egyptianaaa.org/SI-History3.html Today, any man who wears a hood and advocates killing children is more worried about what’s going on between his legs than what’s happening on the border. Good to see the Klan upholding their traditional values. - Grandson of Man - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 9:56 am: “it was easy to tell who the hooded Klansmen were because everybody recognized their horses” They are the horses’ behinds. America is becoming a darker country. That population trend will continue and has serious political implications. I looked at a new Obama poll, and whites strongly oppose him, but non-whites strongly support him. In this poll, non-whites pretty strongly support Obamacare. http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2014/images/07/22/rel7c.pdf - Stormfield - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 9:58 am: Fear and anger are effective recruiting tools. Seems like selling crazy has been pretty easy in the post-recession world. This stuff is sad; it’s unfortunate how quick people are to blame some other group for their own issues. - Gooner - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 9:59 am: This cannot possibly be true. My friends on the right tell me that racism no longer exists, and that only “race-baiting” occurs. Ergo, these “KKK” stories must be as fictional as the so-called President’s birth certificate (to use an analogy that they might understand). - 47th Ward - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:01 am: The Klan has stepped up its recruiting across the country. Anti-immigrant fervor really sells I guess. http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/07/ku-klux-klan-recruitment - RNUG - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:03 am: They’re still around. We’ve bumped into the Klan a couple of times in the past. Once late at night about 25 years ago a bit south of Joliet and out in the boonies. Mrs RNUG with a girl friend stumbled on a large daytime rally just a few years ago while in Fulton County while shopping on the Spoon River Drive; they invited the ladies to attend but didn’t seem disappointed when they declined. - Rharaz - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:04 am: The Klan, like the Nazis, don’t interest me much (they are basically a diversion, and I do my best to ignore them). Maybe it would be more productive to discuss/debate the root causes of why these immigrants are fleeing Central America, and what we as US citizens can do to help remedy the issue. My (limited) research shows that the immigrants are fleeing mainly due to poverty and gang violence which has increased due to illegal drug trafficking. Would anyone argue with this, or could you add to the list of root causes? For many reasons, poverty will almost always be an issue, but there are charities like Heifer International and others that help the poor learn to take care of themselves. Regarding gang violence and drug trafficking, the US prohibition of alcohol demonstrated that criminalizing a popular drug had the consequence of causing an explosion in black market activity and organized crime. The crime was possibly due to the fact that when illegal deals go bad, or turf is violated, the people involved have no legal means of resolving their dispute (violence is their recourse). Repealing prohibition helped remedy the problem. Perhaps decriminalizing drugs in Central America and the US would have similar results? What other changes could we possibly make which would help? Who do we speak with to make those changes happen? - Gooner - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:04 am: But on a more serious note – I honestly don’t think it is “spreading.” I just think it is becoming more out in the open. People like Rush Limbaugh and Ted Nugent are making it more socially acceptable. Locally, if you look at the Illinois Review site, a lot of their stuff seems to cross the line into racism. They sure do like noting when a minority does something wrong. It is never “Bill Smith” did something. Instead you get articles there like “A a black male . . .” There is a racial focus to a lot of there stuff that should concern anybody on the right who seeks support from IR readers. Look at birthers — there is no serious defense of a birther position other than racism, yet 40% of Americans are not sure if the President was born in this country. People said that electing a black president showed that America is no longer racist. While undoubtedly it shows progress, the response to his election shows that there is work to be done. - A guy... - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:05 am: If an idiot or small group of idiots are just tossing these out of car windows onto driveways and lawns, they can cover a lot of ground relatively quickly. Roughly the same ground as the distributors of daily newspapers. “Shoot to kill????” Actually the more wacky they sound, the better it is. Confused people won’t join, just certifiably whacked out kooks. Fortunately not many. - Downstate - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:05 am: Ironically, Effingham is the place where the Klan’s expansion in Illinois was stopped in the 1920s. The Klan were organizing throughout the south - holding picnics and bands to encourage enrollment. A local priest started attending every event and took to the stage to educate those in attendance on what the KKK really stood for. Because of Fr. Nell, the Klan was never able to organize Effingham County……or move further north. - Dirty Red - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:13 am: = My maternal grandfather was from southern Illinois. He used to derisively joke that it was easy to tell who the hooded Klansmen were because everybody recognized their horses. = I’ll bet there are still parts of Union County where that is still the case. - McDouble - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:13 am: I read an article a couple weeks ago about the Klan distributing those same leaflets in South Carolina. However, instead of rocks, they used candy. How sweet of them hehe - Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:13 am: Crazy crazy folks. Outside of racism, I really don’t get the intensity of the anti-immigrant fervor with these kids. I heard a GOP congressman yesterday saying the problem is easy to solve for $27 million - just buy them one way plane tickets home. Of course the only problem with that is it completely violates US law in a bunch of ways. I get the issue that we don’t just want to open the flood gates, but that doesn’t mean we need to lose our humanity in the process. - G'Kar - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:16 am: Since I moved back to Central Illinois about 20 years ago, it seems like every 4 or 5 years a few communities in the region get blanketed with Klan propaganda. As for the Klan War in southern Illinois during Prohibition, Bloody Williamson is a great book. Interestingly, the Sheltons, who were bootleggers who help defeat the Klan ended up pretty much controlling organized crime in Peoria. - walker - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:25 am: Hmm. First time I’ve seen the phrase “post-recession world.” The more folks think we’ve reached that status, the better incumbents’ chances. It’s usually about the economy first, then other reasons come into play for leaning or switching. A lot of what campaigns do is just noise relative to these general perceptions — unless ads are targeted right at economic issues. Continuing on the current track, economic perceptions will be slightly better in Nov. If we have a big market correction, or some other significant crisis, they could go down dramatically. We might best predict Quinn’s re-election chances simply by tracking economic perception or consumer confidence indicators — but I am too lazy to test that hypothesis. The biggest Klan rally I ever saw had about twelve people, many of whom were related to each other. A bit like the Westboro Church folks. Cost of our freedoms. - hisgirlfriday - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:26 am: @wordslinger - Thanks for the link. My greatgrandfather was a Southern Illinois miner and Eastern European immigrant who passed down stories about his harassment by the Klan. Yet if I walked by one of these clowns now with my blonde hair, fair skin, and light eyes they’d probably try to hand me a recruitment flyer. - oz - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:28 am: No mention of La Raza?? Why this site must be racist. La Raza who’s motto is: “For La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada. For the race everything. For those outside the race nothing. Can’t get much more racist than that. Even many Latin Americans call them the Mexican version of the KKK. - oz - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:34 am: La Raza members decked in brown shirts, bandanas and badges stating “Chicano Power” “…“What’s happening now is that we saw on the news that there was a bus with kids, and that’s the only part that we have a problem with – you know, there’s kids, man,” a member of the group told Biggs. “… The point of the matter and the only reason we are here is because of the kids and that’s it.” But when a Hispanic man walked up and called the group the “Mexican Klan,” another member of La Raza revealed a more divisive view. “You’re a traitor,” he said to the man…” La Raza, which in English literally means “the race,” has been linked to other groups in the past such as the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan (MEChA), which advocate Mexico taking over the American Southwest in a process called “La Reconquista.” “MEChA and the La Raza movement teach that Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and parts of Washington State make up an area known as ‘Aztlan’ — a fictional ancestral homeland of the Aztecs before Europeans arrived in North America,” reported Human Events. “As such, it belongs to the followers of MEChA. These are all areas America should surrender to ‘La Raza’ once enough immigrants, legal or illegal, enter to claim a majority, as in Los Angeles. “The current borders of the United States will simply be extinguished.” And MEChA in particular isn’t shy about its views. “In the spirit of a new people that is conscious not only of its proud historical heritage but also of the brutal gringo invasion of our territories, we, the Chicano inhabitants and civilizers of the northern land of Aztlan from whence came our forefathers, reclaiming the land of their birth and consecrating the determination of our people of the sun, declare that the call of our blood is our power, our responsibility, and our inevitable destiny,” reads the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán (Spiritual Plan of Aztlán in English), which was adopted by MEChA. “Aztlan belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans. … We are a bronze people with a bronze culture. Before the world, before all of North America, before all our brothers in the bronze continent, we are a nation, we are a union of free pueblos, we are Aztlan.” “For the race, everything. Outside the race, nothing.” http://www.infowars.com/infowars-reporters-confront-la-raza-in-murrieta/ - 47th Ward - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:35 am: Don’t you have some more fliers to pass out or something oz? Seriously, stay on your side of the rainbow. Yikes. - Abraham Froman - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:44 am: Shouldnt these idiots be issued littering citations if they are throwing bags with paper and pebbles out of a car window? - RNUG - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:45 am: 47th, oz is making a valid point that there are crazies on both sides of almost every issue. - Arthur Andersen - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:51 am: Rich, when the topic of the Klan came up around my paternal grandfather, he would say “some more sheets are missing at the nuthouse” without fail. - walker - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:51 am: “Let’s go on a Night Ride.” How romantic for them. Kinda like: “Let’s strap on our six-shooters and keep the peace on Main Street.” Straight out of Hollywood. - 47th Ward - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:53 am: No RNUG, oz is making a flase equivalency. Are there crazy people on all sides of most issues? Sure. But comparing the Ku Klux Klan to a bunch of street gang Mexican nationalists who have no history of lynchings, burning crosses or racial hatred and violence toward African Americans, Jews, Catholics, gay people, etc. minimizes the crimes of the Klan. oz is attempting to say the Klan is OK because there are other crazy people. That is a bunch of bull hockey and none of us should tolerate it. - MOON - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:55 am: RNUG 47 limits her view to her agenda. You cannot reason with an unreasonable person! - Anonymous - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:56 am: RNUG, Actually, OZ’s point was that this site must be racist because it did not reference La Raza. He said it himself. He could have raised awareness of the group without saying that. - Wumpus - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:57 am: I am not in support of letting all the border crossers in, but I hate these people. I am not for violence against the amnesty seekers along the souther border. 47th, Terror is terror, violence is violence. No need to bring LaRaza up in this discussion, but no need to minimalize their stupid beleifs either. - Roadiepig - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:57 am: - Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:13 am: I get the issue that we don’t just want to open the flood gates, but that doesn’t mean we need to lose our humanity in the process. Absolutely Cynic ! - Demoralized - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:57 am: ==You cannot reason with an unreasonable person!== As you have proven time and again. - Demoralized - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:59 am: ==oz is making a valid point that there are crazies on both sides of almost every issue.== True, but this story has absolutely nothing to do with La Raza. - Rich Miller - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 10:59 am: Don’t feed the Klan-supporting troll. Move along. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:02 am: I will say this again: People are stressed out. They don’t need this too. A government that allows panic to spread is failing. Citizens need stability. The more a government fails, the more citizens believe they are on their own and take matters into their own hands for survival. It is a natural human instinct. Please don’t belittle people for being upset. Did that Father who attended those KKK rallies begin by insulting the crowds? Of course not. He heard their confessions and he knows their valid worries. He didn’t belittle them, I’m sure. So if you want to politicize this - you won’t be doing what the good Father did to stop this. You would be fanning the flames in order to score political points. This cuts both ways politically. I’m sick of hearing Democrats trying to ignore their own century long past by smearing Republicans with this. - David Ormsby - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:04 am: –La Raza, which in English literally means “the race,”– “La Raza” can also be translated as “the masses”. If that punctures your race argument, oz, lo siento mucho, hombre. - Demoralized - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:05 am: ==Please don’t belittle people for being upset.== I hope beyond hope that you are not defending the KKK. I get upset. The KKK is not how a rational person reacts to being upset. - Lil Squeezy - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:06 am: I read an article that said we will spend $58.5 billion on our pets this year. But feeding foreign children will destroy us. Damn immigrants. Just look at what the Irish did to our state govt! Snark intended. - Plutocrat03 - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:07 am: “it seems like every 4 or 5 years a few communities in the region get blanketed with Klan propaganda” Probably takes them that long to fundraise for the recruitment supplies… - oz - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:10 am: O/T More bad news for Illinois tax revenue. Caterpillar Retail Sales Plunge By 13% That makes 17 consecutive months of Y/Y declines. They’ll likely be joining the list of corporations doing the tax inversion thing or leaving Illinois to keep their spreadsheet profit game going. Add it to the Illinois tax inversion list. Abbott Labs Abbvie Walgreens Or perhaps Superior Truss and Panel Inc. of Markham, Ill now moving to Gary, Ind. These are huge companies my friends and no amount of Quinn sponsored temporary “jobs now” is gonna offset the damage. - Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:14 am: MO-ON, or Mr. “I don’t collect social security even though I paid into the system” guy, 47 is a he. Not sure why you would assume he is a she just because he disagrees with you. - VanillaMan - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:20 am: I hope beyond hope that you are not defending the KKK. Of course not. One of my heroes is Illinois president Ulysses Grant. It was he who stomped out the Klan when it was first formed. It was he who forced through Freemen rights and put African Americans in political office. It was he who used the Federal troops to force slavery and bigotry to go underground. It was he who passed the first civil right acts. Hate the sin, but not the sinner. Right now citizens here have been rocked by so much bad, it should not surprise anyone that they no longer believe their problems will be solved by government led by governors who end up in jail, bust the budget, can’t keep guns out of the hands of criminals, can’t educate their children, and can’t keep our jobs in Illinois. - MOON - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:21 am: CHICAGO Go back and read my post again. I was talking about the wife who is not a citizen. - Chicago Cynic - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:23 am: Sorry MOON, which part of “47 limits her view to her agenda” did I misunderstand? - Demoralized - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:24 am: I think teh crazy has spread to this comment section. - Gooner - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:27 am: Vanilla, In reality, the economy - both locally and nationwide — is improving. Crime is down. Murders, at least in Chicago, are at about a 40 year low. Now, you may not accept that reality, which may be a reason for you to justify an upswing in Klan activity. But for those of living in a reality-based world, times are getting better, and moreover, there is simply never a valid reason to turn to a racist organization for support. - wordslinger - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:27 am: For crying out loud, “stress” as a rationale for the Klan. Take up jogging or knitting if you’re overwhelmed. You know what? Some people, all over the world, in good times or bad, are just murderous racists, always the “victim” of someone who’s different than them. Been like that since the crust cooled. And good people called them out as such in much more “stressful” times than these. - Gooner - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:28 am: Demoralized, Good point. Where did Mo-on and Oz come from? They seem new to me. Odd that they would arrive when the issue turns to “people are crazy.” - Colossus - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:47 am: I just started reading Fall of the House of Dixie, which tracks the social changes through the Civil War. Instead of being battles, casualty rates, military strategy, it simply lays out a description of the social order pre and post bellum and more importantly, the mindset behind and resulting from that social order, and how that mindset is unable to coexist with the antebellum world. There are parallels to be drawn and insights to be gleaned between today and then if you want to read it, but I’m inclined to let you draw your own. Besides, saying it out loud tends to rile up teh crazy. http://www.amazon.com/The-Fall-House-Dixie-Transformed/dp/0812978722/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406220420&sr=8-1&keywords=fall+of+the+house+of+dixie - Fed Up - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 11:48 am: Gooner, “Murders, at least in Chicago, are at about a 40 year low.” Except for they are exactly the same as 2011, not that long ago. 2012 & 2013 were above 2011 so lets not get to carried away. Progress has been made but dont believe the spin. - Formerly Known As... - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 12:29 pm: Anti-Semitic flyers on the north side of Chicago and KKK flyers from Streator to Effingham. All in one week. Disgusting. - Formerly Known As... - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 12:48 pm: == Murders, at least in Chicago, are at about a 40 year low. == A large part of that is due to advances in medicine, portable medical technology and the incredible work of EMT’s during the past 40 years. Shootings this year are actually up over last year. == there is simply never a valid reason to turn to a racist organization for support == Well stated. It is an obscene, brutal thing to see the way certain terror organizations, hate groups and even street gangs prey on poverty in order to recruit. - G'Kar - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 12:52 pm: ==Ironically, Effingham is the place where the Klan’s expansion in Illinois was stopped in the 1920s. == Not really. The Klan was organized all over the state in the early 1920’s. Events know as “Klantauquias” (based on the popular Chautauquas) were held all over Illinois, including, but not limited to, Marion, Jacksonville, Decatur (as many as 5,000 attended), Urbana (about 1,000 attended), and Chicago Heights (there arsonists burned down the Klan’s tent). Most of the vitriol at these events was aimed at Catholics and immigrants, but African-Americans and Jews were not totally ignored. Thousands of Illinoisans joined. I grew up in a very small county in North Central Illinois. Years ago when I came home from grad school to visit my parents, I was invited by my old high school history teach to his house for a drink. I was stunned when we went down to his basement “mancave” to see a silken banner portraying a KKK “knight” in robes on horseback leaning against his wall. He explained to me that he had been given all the material from the county chapter of the Klan by the grandchildren of the Grand Wizard (or whatever). He had other banners, robes, and most fascinating of all, all the paperwork, not only the minutes of meetings, treasurer’s reports, etc, but also material from the national organization. There were around 80 active members in the `20’s. I asked if he was going to do anything with all this material–at least one book could be written. He said he would not allow anything to be done with it because family of members were still alive. As an historian, I think that is a pity. - Wumpus - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 12:54 pm: FKA, I argued similarly about the medical advances, but could not get info on the shootings. Thank you. - D.P.Gumby - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 12:56 pm: Maybe they can get a deal on any left over hooded White Sox rain ponchos…. - redleg - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 1:14 pm: There’s a lot of stuff that goes on out of sight that can frighten and boggle the mind. A high school teacher of mine from the mid-60’s shared with our class that her highly respected and successful farmer of a grandfather had membership with the KKK. She was an early member of the counter-culture and was apparently giving us both a warning and a history lesson. I knew the man….worked for him as a teenager and never would have suspected. There’s black hoods out there too. I’ve witness them leaving homes and disappearing into the night several times in the town I live just ouside of. One them had a license plate stamped HADES. - Palanon - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 1:19 pm: >>>> The number of Klan chapters has declined nationally from 221 in 2010 to 163 at the most current tally taken in 2013. It’s all about quality, not quantity. - steve schnorf - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 2:35 pm: G’kar, although wasn’t the Shelton’s main interest in defeating the guy who was leading the Klan forces, not the Klan itself? - G'Kar - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 3:46 pm: Steve, to a degree, yes. S. Glenn Young was hired by the Klan to clean up Prohibition violators, like the Sheltons and the Birger. He and a number of klansmen were deputized by the Feds. Raids on roadhouses by Young and the Klan escalated the violence. The klan was against booze because of the Catholics and immigrants, especially in Herrin. I remember talking to a friend of mine’s father in the early `90s, an Italian from Herrin who remembered when Young and the klan broke into their house and destroyed their bathtub, because it was full of homemade wine! Here is a link to an article that appeared in the Southern: http://thesouthern.com/progress/section3/klan-wars-roadhouse-raids-spark-power-struggle-in-williamson-county/article_8178e062-0012-11e1-b6a6-001cc4c03286.html - Formerly Known As... - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 3:46 pm: Wumpus - you’re welcome, fellow capfax’er. A July 1 AP story provides more background if you are interested http://bigstory.ap.org/article/chicago-police-shootings-homicides-down Keep in mind that story ran before over 80 people were shot during the 4th of July weekend. - Dixie Normous - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 4:25 pm: Nobody cares about what the Klan has to say. I’m surprised there are 62 comments about this. Their membership is in decline even with a black president and recent advances in gay rights being in the headlines. I’m pretty sure they drained their entire treasury to print those leaflets. - Precinct Captain - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 5:38 pm: ==- Formerly Known As… - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 12:48 pm:== Year over year is your only comparison point? Shootings are down over the long term. http://www.wbez.org/news/data-behind-chicagos-gun-crimes-108092 http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1992-01-01/news/9201010135_1_homicide-victim-drug-trafficking-killed - steve schnorf - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 9:17 pm: well, at least they aren’t stopping trains and searching for the Pope, as they did in Indiana. - wordslinger - Thursday, Jul 24, 14 @ 9:36 pm: Schnorf, the Indiana Klan story is a scary tale. They ran the whole show there for a while. If Stephenson hadn’t been such an overtly sadistic freak, who knows? Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.