WGXC-90.7 FM

Local hate group hangs flyer in Catskill

Jan 18, 2024 12:55 pm

Tiffany Greenwaldt-Simon reports in Columbia-Greene Media that a flyer for the hate group White Lives Matter was found on a utility pole at Dutchman’s Landing in Catskill on Jan. 12. Elliot Matos, director of operations for the Hudson-Catskill Housing Coalition, said, “It’s sad.... People justhave a lot of hate in their heart.” The flyer had two QR codes and the words “CALLING ON NEW YORK WHITES! JOIN OTHER EUROPEAN DESCENDANTS IN ACTIVISM!” The Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization, deemed the "White Lives Matter" organization as a hate group in 2016. Matos said. “This is what happens when there isn’t Black representation on Main Street.... This is a very conservative county and people feel comfortable to do something like this.” Michael Richardson, a community activist and producer of local Hate-Watch Report, said he believes the flyer came from the same group responsible for similar activities in Columbia County. Richardson said, “We have every reason to believe this group is local.... They keep showing up with their stuff in the area and it’s indicating that they’re not a pass-through group.” In 2021, White Lives Matter stickers were spotted in Hudson, Stockport, and Valatie, and the next year the group put up a White Lives Matter banner at the village gazebo in Chatham. Richardson said this is the first report of the group in Greene County. He said, “For the last six or seven months, there have been no reports of white supremacy, and I don’t recall there being anything in Catskill or Greene County before this.” Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.