Antigay fliers
litter front yards in Washington State

Residents in Washington State's Thurston County awoke on Tuesday to find racist and antigay messages promoting a neo-Nazi rally at the capitol littering their front yards. In the town of Lacey, bags weighted down with rocks contained leaflets with messages such as "Whitey: Are you tired of the government openly encouraging, in the name of diversity, the death of the white race?"

Similar notes left taped to plastic Easter eggs in Tumwater contained slurs against several ethnic groups. Others had fliers with pornographic images condemning homosexuality. The messages claimed to be from the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group based in Minneapolis.

"We had officers out in force picking them up. One of our officers picked up 40 by himself," Tumwater detective Jennifer Kolb said. The material is not considered a hate crime unless it specifically threatens an individual or advocates an illegal act, Kolb said.

In 2004 similar fliers were distributed in Thurston County, apparently by National Alliance, a white separatist group based in Hillsboro, W.Va. (AP)