CYPRESS : Nazi Tabloid Found in City Newsletter

Cypress police and the Anti-Defamation League are investigating the distribution of racist literature found stuffed in the city’s newsletter, officials said Thursday.

Two Orange County residents reported receiving copies of the Cypress City News that contained a neo-Nazi tabloid called the New Order, police said.

Gilbert Morgan of Santa Ana said he found a copy of the city’s quarterly publication on his doorstep this week, and police said an unidentified Huntington Beach man reported finding the newsletter in the back of his pickup truck last week after shopping in downtown Huntington Beach.

“I thought it was kind of strange that I would receive a Cypress newsletter, and inside I found this pro-white bunch of trash, so I got upset about it,” Morgan said. “Too many people want to divide and tear down and not build up and help society. There’s no reason to have this racial hatred. It’s terrible. We need more love, not hate.”

The four-page neo-Nazi publication is produced by the National Socialist German Workers Party Overseas Organization, based in Lincoln, Neb.

Jonathan Bernstein, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said the neo-Nazi group is headed by Gary Rex Lauck of Chicago. Lauck could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Bernstein said Lauck has been banned from Germany, where it is a crime to distribute neo-Nazi material. “He’s been jailed several times there,” Bernstein said. “He’s probably the largest distributor of neo-Nazi propaganda in the United States and Europe.”

City officials said they have no idea who placed the material in their newsletter.

“We’re all confused,” City Clerk Lilian Haina said. “We don’t understand how it happened. It was a surprise to us.”

Bernstein said similar material was slipped in copies of the last Cypress newsletter in April. “This isn’t the first time,” he said, adding that the league is following a few leads as to who inserted the tabloid.

Cypress Police Lt. Jim Weuve said he remembers seeing stacks of the city’s latest newsletter sitting on the counter at the main post office about a week ago. Apparently, someone picked up the newsletters, inserted the racist material and distributed them, he said. He added that leaflets from the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. were also inserted in some newsletters.

Cypress post office spokesman Larry Dozier said the city newsletters could have been picked up at any of the public buildings in town, including City Hall and the library, or at the Chamber of Commerce office. He said 16,258 of the city’s publication were mailed to residents and about 150 to 200 were placed on the counter for anyone to take.

Because the incidents apparently were not targeted at any specific person or group of people, Weuve said, they are not considered a hate crime.

“The distribution has been random, so what we have is an incident and we’re looking into it, but it’s not a criminal investigation,” Weuve said.

Meanwhile, city officials said the newsletter will no longer be produced because of budget cuts.