KKK post made on Facebook targets Charleroi immigrant population
Charleroi officials have been notified of a social media post on a Charleroi Facebook group’s page of a flier promoting a white supremacy group.
A copy of the flier posted online purports to be from the Trinity White Knights Ku Klux Klan. It asks “White citizens of Charleroi” to arm themselves and “protect your families.”
The Washington branch of the NAACP has notified the FBI Pittsburgh bureau about the online post. A spokesperson for the FBI said Friday the office “could not confirm or deny the bureau’s involvement in Charleroi.”
Charleroi Borough Manager Joe Manning said Charleroi Regional Police are aware of the post.
“It’s 100% hate speech, and it has no place in Charleroi,” Manning said, noting the post is believed to be from out of state. “It’s nobody here local. It’s out-of-state radicals trying to stir up problems that don’t exist here. I couldn’t denounce it more strongly on behalf of the administration of Charleroi and the people who live in this community.”
Manning said the administrator of the Facebook group, Charleroi Rambler, took down the post and the person who posted the flier will be removed from the group, if that person is identified.
Despite representing hate speech, the distribution of KKK fliers is protected under the First Amendment as free speech, so no charges would be filed.
The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the KKK as a hate group.
Charleroi Borough has been in the national spotlight in recent days after former president Donald Trump disparaged the Haitian population that lives there.