The Centralia Police Department has opened an investigation after Centralia residents found white supremacist propaganda distributed in their yards on Monday, Oct. 14.
The propaganda was found inside baggies that also contained wooden pellets, according to a Centralia resident.
“To protect my neighbors and any children who would've been walking home from this vile, hateful garbage, we drove around for an hour picking them up. Centralia PD has picked up what we collected and have opened a case,” a Centralia resident said in an email to The Chronicle, adding that they found the first baggie at approximately 5:15 p.m. on Monday and picked them up in the surrounding area between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m.
Neighbors picked up approximately 16 baggies of propaganda on Monday and determined that there were at least four different designs, including one that had a photo collage of Hitler in it.
As of Monday evening, the propaganda had been found on F, H, J, K, L, N and Euclid streets in Centralia and in at least one yard in Fords Prairie.
“This is not acceptable,” Centralia Police Department Interim Chief Andy Caldwell said of the propaganda on Tuesday, “ … Our overall goal is to protect the quality of life in our community, and we want to make sure the community feels comfortable with the fact that we are doing everything we can to protect that quality of life for everybody.”
The Centralia Police Department confirmed Tuesday that the case is actively under investigation, but stated that they didn’t have information about the investigation to release to the public at this time.
Anyone who has possible security footage of the propaganda being left or who found a piece of propaganda in their yard is encouraged to contact Detective Adam Haggerty at ahaggerty@cityofcentralia.com or cpdrecords@cityofcentralia.com.
The case number for the investigation is 24A11727.
“Obviously, if anybody sees something, they can immediately call 911 or the non-emergency number to report it so we can get an officer out as quick as we can,” Caldwell said.
The Centralia Police Department’s non-emergency number is 360-330-7680.
