Connecticut Town Holds Anti-Racism Meetings After Being Blanketed With Flyers Saying ‘Black Crimes Matter’

A Connecticut town held an ‘anti racism meeting’ on Wednesday night after local lawns were blanketed with flyers reading ‘Black Crimes Matter’, following an attempted theft of a white man’s car which saw him being seriously beaten.

The attempted car theft was captured on a Ring doorbell camera in Rocky Hill on April 10, and has since been blamed for sparking ongoing racial tensions there.

A young black man is seen approaching the red Infiniti Q50 sedan parked in a doorway, and scoping it out. The vehicle is worth $42,000 new.

He tries the driver’s side door and finds it unlocked, then jumps in.

The homeowner runs out and confronts him, and the black man attacks him. As the pair scuffle, falling to the ground, another three men run from a waiting car to join in the beating.

The homeowner has the initial thief hoisted behind his head, but the others drag him to the ground. At one point he is in a headlock as the gang kick and punch him – one kicking him so hard his sneaker falls off, and then continuing to beat him with the shoe.

The four thieves then run away, leaving the homeowner – who did not appear severely injured – to dust himself off and inspect his bruises.

Sgt Jeffrey Foss-Rugan said the attackers were ‘three younger in age black males and one younger in age white/Hispanic male.’

Three days later the tiny white flyers were littering the neighborhood, with ‘Black Crimes Matter’ typed on the front, and the contact details for a neo-Nazi group on the back.

Valerie Triblets, a member of the Racial Justice Steering Committee at the Rocky Hill Congregational Church, said she had no doubt the attempted car theft and racist flyers were linked.

‘They were distributed generally in the same neighborhood as the assault, Valley View Drive,’ she said.

She added that the supremacist group is ‘using it as an opportunity to spread hate.’

Triblets wrote a statement on behalf of her church that was posted on Facebook: ‘We call out the evil behavior of those who chose to scatter hate through our neighborhoods in an attempt to create moral panic and convince good people that there is a connection between race and criminal behavior.’

The group, New England Nationalist Social Club, NSC-131, has been trying to recruit people for the last four years, The Hartford Courant reported.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says the group is ‘a neo-Nazi group based in New England whose activities consist of staging protests and distributing hate literature.’

Its leader, Christopher Hood, a former member of the Proud Boys, and many of its members have faced criminal charges, in some cases related to their racist activism, the Southern Poverty center said.

On Wednesday night, a community meeting was held, and on Sunday a march will be staged under the banner: ‘Unite Against White Supremacy in Connecticut’.

Kate Schramm, who lives near Valley View Drive, told The Courant she noticed the slips of paper when she was walking her dog.

‘I was surprised to see them. They looked like little pieces of trash,’ Schramm said.

‘I picked one up. I was just disgusted.’

She said many of the papers are still scattered throughout the neighborhood.

‘They’re really tiny. You wouldn’t notice them unless you were looking for them,’ she said.

The Anti-Defamation League, which monitors anti-Semitism and other hate crimes, reported 207 incidents of white supremacists propaganda in Connecticut in 2022 – a 115 percent rise from 2021.

Connecticut is now ninth in the nation in the number of incidents, ADL states.

‘Incidents of white supremacist propaganda distribution in Connecticut are at a historic high,’ said Stacey Sobel ADL Connecticut Regional Director, in their annual report.

‘Everyone must come together to reject hate and extremism and work towards creating a better community that does not exclude, marginalize, or target any person.’