By David Fortier
Two residents seeking a response to the scattering of white supremacist literature in the city spoke up during public participation at the city council meeting last evening.
“Residents are scared and concerned. And feel that the city should do something in order to address these fears and concerns that residents have,” said Adam Antar.
“Our children of color deserve to be able to walk home from school without fear. We deserve to live in our neighborhoods and in our homes without questioning our neighbors.”
He continued, “I look forward to seeing what this beautiful city will do to address this issue. Whatever it is it must be done in a timely and substantive manner.”
Camelia Lopez said, “If a child is biracial and picks up those pieces of papers, they are looking at it and one part of it is telling them they are inherently bad and the other is part of them is inherently good and worth protecting.
“What is that saying to that child. What are we saying to our community by not standing up immediately and saying we condemn these actions.”
In response to Lopez, Mayor Jeffrey Caggiano said that he talked with Antar before the council meeting and arranged to talk with him in July to discuss the situation. He said he would be happy to have Lopez join them.
“We would like to not perpetuate this hate and fear because we believe that is a bad thing,” he said.
“We may disagree on the outcome, but I would love to talk to you further to see how we can work together,” he added.
Lopez countered that July was too late.
“July 5 is not quick enough. I am sorry,” she said. “People in Bristol are for diversity, and I love it, and want the community to be involved, but what we are doing is not enough. It is not enough.”
She added, “I think it is a bigger problem than you perceive it to be.”
In the end, Caggiano agreed to meet early Friday morning with the both of them.
“We can bring in Chief Gould as well as others from our community to see what proactive solutions you are thinking of,” he said.
In his opening remarks, Caggiano anticipated that there would be comments about the racist literature found in the city last week and his own response.
He asked for a moment of reflection about all the things that have been happening lately.
“We will probably have some public speakers tonight to talk about the great all-heart city of Bristol and there is a lot of diversity in town that I think we should all recognize and appreciate, and you may do that in your own way.”
There was some question about when the mayor learned about the literature and made a statement to the press. Lopez said that her brother had informed the Police Department on Monday and Antar had spoken with the mayor’s office on Tuesday.
In an email inquiry from TBE about the racist leaflets, Caggiano said in his email reply at 9:45 p.m., “I was informed by our Department of Public Works employees and the Police Department of the literature drops.”
“There is no room for hatred or divisiveness in our city and we continue to identify those that are responsible,” he wrote.
In a separate email response earlier, Police Chief Brian Gould wrote, “The Bristol Police Department is aware and is currently investigating this incident.”
Flyers from the group, The New England Nationalist Social Club, were found on driveways in the Northeast area earlier in the week.
The group identifies themselves, in the flyers, as “a pro-white, street-oriented fraternity dedicated to raising authentic resistance to the enemies of our people in the New England area. This takes the form of networking, training, activism, outreach, and above all action.”
Correction: The original article stated that Lopez’s brother talked to the police on Tuesday. Rather Antar spoke with the mayor’s office on Tuesday.
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