Roughly 15 to 20 packages filled with rice and literature for the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were scattered around Tulelake Saturday night or Sunday morning. Residents found the materials on the doorsteps of their homes and businesses.

The fliers noted that the “radical left” was trying to steal the 2020 election and institute a Communist agenda. It includes phone numbers with area codes in North Carolina, Iowa and Southern California, a P.O. Box and a link to a website.

The Ku Klux Klan is a notorious racist organization and hate group that supports white, Protestant racial superiority.

According to the Tulelake Police Department, this is the second time the organization has investigated racist materials distributed in the town. Police Chief Tony Ross said Monday that KKK recruitment paraphernalia also appeared about four years ago, but in neither case have police been able to identify a culprit.

Ross said a person could be charged with offensive littering if they are found responsible. Ross said advertisements for the hate group are not illegal.

“With these it generally falls back to a freedom of speech issue,” Ross said. “Even if it’s speech that we hate, they have the right to do it. But the littering part — the unsolicited putting those out is a different issue.”

Tulelake Mayor Henry Ebinger was upset to hear about the messages appearing in town. He said “that’s not who we are.”

He noted Tulelake’s large Hispanic population and the number of veterans who call the city home.

“We’re a community of veterans, and those were certainly not the ideals they fought, and sometimes died for, to preserve in our great nation,” he said. “And so we’re not going to let them down by ignoring that or tolerating that in any way, shape or form.”