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Notebooks With Racist Message Found at K marts

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Burbank police are investigating as a hate crime an incident in which 180 notebooks stamped with a white supremacist message were found on the shelves of two K mart stores.

The Mead, Union Comp and Carolina Pad notebooks were stamped with the words: “Earth’s most endangered species: The white race. Help preserve it,” police said Sunday.

Police said store officials believe that the notebooks were probably stamped before arriving at the Burbank and Sunland K marts because the same type of vandalized notebooks were found in both locations. They believe that the notebooks probably were delivered from a company warehouse within the past week.

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The message on the notebooks, stamped in black ink, listed a telephone number for a group identified as the Aryan Freedom Fighters, which has a Chatsworth post office box.

Police said the incident was being classified as a hate crime because investigators who called the phone number were greeted with a message that was “race-biased or promoted hatred of another race,” said Burbank police Lt. Van Miller.

The notebooks were removed Saturday night from the shelves of the K mart stores.

“They’re gone. We don’t want to sell them,” said Gentry Long, assistant manager of the Burbank store.

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Long said he did not know how many of the notebooks, which contained lined white paper with a glued binding, were sold or how many were returned.

Police said store officials learned of the vandalized notebooks after a customer returned one to the Burbank location.

Long declined further comment.

Regional officials for the chain were not available for comment.

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