DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – People living in at least two different central Illinois communities are expressing frustration after messages of hate appeared in random neighborhoods in both towns.
People living in the communities of LeRoy and Mahomet both said they received bags filled with rocks and white supremacy literature.
“Grow up," Jill, a woman who received the fliers, said. “Mind your own business. Stay in your own lane. Why are you concerned about someone else's business?"
‘Jill,’ who did not want her face shown, said her mixed family received the letter.
LeRoy police are looking for whoever placed the bags around the town. In just a matter of days, police said at least 50 of the fliers appeared the village.
"It said white lives matter at the top and something under that all of these things that are wrong with society and Satan and that kind of thing,” Jan Owen, who also received the fliers, said.
LeRoy police said communities up and down I-74 are reporting received the fliers, a concerning act for those of the Black community.
“There is some hate spreading,” Dr. Jeanelle Norman, president of the Decatur NAACP, said. "Our people have to understand that these types of hate things will exist and that we (should) not be afraid of them or fearful of them."
The LeRoy Police Department said they believe the people responsible were driving a white or silver van, but they do not believe they are in the area anymore after getting reports of the fliers showing up in Mahomet.
"Let us try and be a peaceful nation,” Dr. Norman said. "We don't need to have hate coming out of anyone."
WAND News reached out to the Mahomet Police Department for a statement on the fliers but has not heard back. The LeRoy police chief said each flier is a littering fine and at last count, the person responsible is facing a $3,750 fine.
