Stoughton cops get break in KKK propaganda case

Boston Herald/April 17, 2002
By Laurel J. Sweet

Three members of a Stoughton family suspected of trafficking in hate and bigotry were caught red-handed last night littering lawns with Ku Klux Klan propaganda, police said.

"They've been a pain in the ass for a couple of years,'' Stoughton police Lt. Francis Wohlgemuth said.

"They're like rats. They come out at night.''

The relatives, ages 41, 38 and 16, whose names police did not release, will be summoned to court at a future date to face improper "disposal of rubbish'' charges, Wohlgemuth said.

"If they'd been standing on a street corner passing this stuff out they'd have been all right,'' he said. "Freedom of speech.''

Inside the family's car, which police had pulled over for speeding, officers found a shopping bag containing 30 to 40 fliers preaching the dogma of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, including complaints that Republican and Democratic legislators won't abolish Black History Month in the Bay State.

"We picked up about 13 other (fliers) out of people's driveways,'' Wohlgemuth said.

The family has been suspected of leafleting the town previously.

"You can't do anything until you catch them and when we've questioned them in the past they've denied it,'' Wohlgemuth said. "They've been doing this for quite awhile. It's sporadic. It'll come up every couple of months, then disappear.''

According to a report released last week by the Anti-Defamation League of New England, Massachusetts ranked third in the country last year for reported incidents of hate crimes, including the racist leafleting of several Boston suburbs.

Note: Charges later dismissed against those responsible for distributing KKK literature click here.