Flyers recruiting for Proud Boys on cars in Ravenswood
Messages included ‘core tenets’ of far-right group
Dozensof flyers attempting to recruit for the farright group the Proud Boys were placed on cars parked throughout several residential blocks in Ravenswood late Friday.
By Saturday morning, about three dozen flyers remained wedged under windshield wipers on cars parked near Montrose and Lincoln avenues, including at least one displaying racist imagery evoking the Ku Klux Klan.
The Proud Boys, designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, drew attention last month when President Donald Trump called on the all-male group to “stand backandstandby” whenhe was asked by moderator Chris Wallace to disavow white supremacy during the first presidential debate with former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump was widely criticized for failing to condemn white supremacy and instead issuing what some members of the Proud Boys took as a rallying cry.
Flyers with varying messages papered the cars, including one that portrayed a drawing of Uncle Sam proclaiming, “We want you to be a Proud Boy.” It listed the group’s “core tenets,” which included anti-racial guilt, anti-political correctness, venerating the housewife andWestern chauvinism.
Ald. Matt Martin, 47th, said residents have informed his office of at least six blocks in the district where flyers were placed on cars.
“People are certainly bothered, but I think they just wanted us to be aware,” he said.
Martin notified the Town Hall police district and said his office will continue to monitor the situation.
Some residents crumpled the flyers when reaching their cars Saturday morning, saying they are not surprised by the leaflets in such a volatile political climate. A man who would not give his name came by to remove the flyers, saying he wanted to make sure they didn’t intimidate peoplewhowere voting nearby at an early voting site in Welles Park.
The Proud Boys were founded during the 2016 election, and members have been known to share white nationalist memes and anti-Muslim and misogynistic rhetoric, according to the SPLC.
The flyers come as the city is bracing for possible unrest ahead of Tuesday’s presidential election following protests and looting last summer in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
On Friday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot unveiled a plan to increase police patrols across the city while deploying 60 to 300 garbage trucks and other heavy city vehicles to key neighborhood corridors to be used as a blockade on wheels. The Office of Emergency Management and Communications also has held a number of trainings aimed at severe weather, COVID-19 outbreaks and protests related to the election, city officials said.
No matter who wins the elections, Lightfoot urged people to channel their emotions into peaceful protests.
“We need to de-escalate from this long, difficult year,” Lightfoot said.