Klan “valentines” in Grand Junction

“Valentines” fliers promoting the Ku Klux Klan were left on driveways or placed in mailboxes around Grand Junction, spurring some residents to turn them into the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office.

The fliers urge people to “love your own race” while condemning homosexuality and “race mixing.” It provides a generic hotline number for the Klan as well as the hate group’s website address.

The fliers appeared to be a part of a national Valentine’s Day event, sheriff spokeswoman Megan Terlecky said in an e-mail.

Residents told officers that “valentines” were put in baggies with candy and left at houses around a neighborhood two weeks ago. Last week, someone reported finding a flier in a mailbox. Another flier has been dropped off at the sheriff department’s front desk.

Grand Junction resident and former public defender Dick Lewis said a friend of his found one of the fliers on his driveway the day after Valentine’s Day.

Lewis said this is not the first incident of its kind in Grand Junction, pointing to several examples, including a time when racist fliers were distributed at Mesa State College in 2001.