LEMON GROVE : Paper May Be Target of KKK Threats
Sheriff’s deputies were investigating whether alleged threats against the Lemon Grove Review were made by white supremacists forming a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.
The 2,000-circulation weekly newspaper has received five threatening letters since August from a group purporting to represent the Klan’s militant “fiery order of the invincible empire,” publisher Pete Kaufman said Tuesday.
The first letter, dated Aug. 30, asked the newspaper to provide a forum for a budding KKK chapter, Kaufman said. After the newspaper declined to publish letters from the group, an office building vacated 10 months ago by the newspaper was vandalized, authorities said.
A rock with a note was thrown through a window and KKK markings were sprayed on an outer wall on Oct. 30, authorities said.
Sgt. Doug Walters said the case was being classified as a hate crime, although investigators still were unsure whether the threats were made by actual KKK members.
The Review detailed the threats in a front-page story last Thursday, offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to arrests and convictions.
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