The FBI said Tuesday that it was aware of neo-Nazi and white supremacist literature that has been distributed over the past several weeks in Squirrel Hill, a hub of Pittsburgh’s Jewish community.
Residents have found stickers and business cards on park benches, playground slides and car windshields.
Gregory Heeb, supervisory special agent for Pittsburgh’s FBI division, said as unsettling as the sentiments might be, the bureau had to remain sensitive to free-speech issues in the absence of any overt threats.
“I think if I were to convey one thing, there’s a very important balance between one’s freedom of speech and at some point does that speech cross the line and become threatening in nature,” Agent Heeb said. “If there were a credible threat, we would communicate that to the public.”
Meanwhile, Agent Heeb said that anything threatening should be reported to law enforcement.
“The public is our best ally,” Agent Heeb said. “If there’s something threatening, that’s obviously critically important to us and something we will act upon.”
One sticker that was distributed contains the message “White People Rock!” and information about the “Church of Creativity,” which is part of the Creativity Alliance, listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a neo-Nazi group. A business card found in the neighborhood shows a blond woman in front of a swastika on one side; a drawing of a fist holding a noose and the words, “It’s not illegal to be white...yet” on the other.
Both the sticker and the card list a web site for white supremacist and neo-Nazi paraphernalia.
“It’s very offensive,” said Bradley W. Orsini, security director for Pittsburgh’s Jewish community and a recently retired career FBI agent.
“Are people a little more anxious because this stuff is out there? Yes they are. And our goal is to make everybody aware,” Mr. Orsini said. “If they see something, say something. Report it.”
Mr. Orsini said the hateful literature began appearing about two-and-a-half weeks ago in Squirrel Hill and Schenley Park.
“The goal that I have as the community’s security director is to identify every sticker, every letter, turn it over, call the police, get me a copy of it and bring this to an incredible awareness, so if they see the person disseminating the information they call the police,” Mr. Orsini said.
Jonathan D. Silver: jsilver@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1962.
First Published: September 5, 2017, 10:46 p.m.
