STATESVILLE, N.C. — Police and deputies are investigating after flyers with the letters “KKK” written on them have started showing up at homes in Statesville.
Authorities said the pieces of paper have shown up at the homes of people who have protested against a Civil War monument in the heart of the city.
Channel 9 reporter Mark Becker was in Statesville on Monday and spoke with a neighbor who got one of the flyers.
The monument, like many Confederate monuments across the country, has become the center of controversy in Statesville following calls to move it from in front of the old courthouse.
Now, some people involved in that movement have received flyers that look like threats.
The flyers, with KKK in big, bold letters, were slipped into clear plastic bags and have shown up in the past several days at the homes of several people in Statesville and Iredell County.
Genesis Houpe was one of them.
“I had just had a friend drop something off, and my 11-year-old came running into my office with this flyer right here -- he was terrified,” Houpe told Channel 9. “It said, ‘KKK we see everything,’ with the business card and candy in it. He was terrified when he got this.”
Inside the plastic bag was the homemade KKK flyer -- and a business card from the East Coast Knights of the Invisible Empire. When Houpe looked closely at what her son handed her, at first, she was stunned. Then, she got angry that her son had to see it.
“He cried and he asked me, ‘Do we need to move? What should we do?’” Houpe said. “I’m just a woman who wants to see change and her kids to grow up in a community without this kind of hate. That’s all I’m working to do.”
Statesville Police Chief David Addison said the flyers began showing up on Saturday -- four days after county commissioners had voted 4-1 to move the Confederate monument that’s been in front of the courthouse since 1905.
“This should not happen,” Addison said. “What happens if children get this? We’re intimidating people using this as a threat, a veiled threat. And that’s something that we should not have happen in our county.”
Sheriff Darren Campbell told Channel 9 that 66 more flyers were left at homes along the western edge of the county.
“None of the neighborhoods like that type of stuff done, and we’ve just got to do everything we can to find out who’s responsible for it,” he said.
At this point, law enforcement said it does not appear that there has been any crime committed, but that they are continuing to investigate.>
Cox Media Group
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