THOUSAND OAKS : Racist Flyers Found Stuffed in Mailboxes

Vitriolic flyers condemning interracial marriages and the media have appeared once again in Ventura County--this time in Thousand Oaks mailboxes.

A member of a group called the Los Angeles White Aryan Resistance was caught distributing similar flyers last year in regional junior and senior high schools.

This week the group has placed flyers in mailboxes mainly in the Sunset Hills neighborhood of Thousand Oaks. A small number of Simi Valley residents have also complained about finding the flyers in their mailboxes.

About 400 to 500 flyers were distributed in Thousand Oaks on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Sylvia Cobos, a spokeswoman for the Thousand Oaks post office.

Cobos said the post office has received numerous calls from concerned residents.

“Residents are very fearful,” Cobos said. “They don’t like the literature at all. It’s very racist and offensive.”

Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Patti Dreyer said county law enforcement officers were aiding postal inspectors with an investigation of the incident.

“It’s a violation of federal law to put anything in a mailbox without postage,” Dreyer said. “But it’s only punishable by a fine.”

Investigators have few leads, and residents are urged to report any suspicious activity to the police, Dreyer said.

The flyer, which contains a cartoon depicting television newswoman Diane Sawyer as Queen Marie Antoinette, who perished in the French Revolution, is a rambling diatribe against African Americans, Latinos, Asians and members of the media. It voices support for the Oklahoma City bombing.

“Timothy McVeigh gave us the answer,” it reads. “He just parked the truck next to the wrong building.”

The flyer lists a phone number with an 818 area code which, when dialed, is answered by a recorded male voice claiming to be the “voice of reason . . . for white racial survival.”

The voice identifies the group as a faction of the White Aryan Resistance in Glendale.