Members of the St. Olaf community recently found at least four white supremacist postings on campus.
All of the postings promoted Patriot Front, a white supremacist, fascist group that uses graphics associated with the United States government, according to the Anti-Defamation League website.
Tyler Krohn ’21 found a Patriot Front sticker on the posterbox outside of the back entrance of the Theater Building Sept. 28. Krohn then scraped off the sticker and reported it to the college.
The sticker read “ONE NATION AGAINST INVASION. PATRIOTFRONT.us.”
“A similar” posting had been found elsewhere on campus and Public Safety has launched an investigation into the postings, Assistant to the President for Institutional Diversity Bruce King wrote in a Sept. 30 email in response to Krohn’s report.
Charlie Moe ’23 found and scratched out a Patriot Front sticker on a lamp post next to Holland Hall Tuesday at 11:30 a.m.
The sticker read “PATRIOT FRONT. LIFE—LIBERTY—VICTORY” and featured the fasces—an axe surrounded by a bundle of rods historically used as a fascist symbol.
Moe photographed the sticker, scratched it out, then posted the photograph on a student-run Facebook group, Moe said.
Moe has not reported the sticker to Public Safety because it is possible someone in town who is not a student put the sticker up – he did not want to create “mass hysteria” and did not want the sticker to scare people, Moe said.
The Manitou Messenger found a Patriot Front Sticker on a lamp post behind Buntrock Commons Friday at 8:42 a.m.
The sticker reads “PATRIOT FRONT. TO OURSELVES AND OUR POSTERITY” and features a bald eagle and a fasces.
Patriot Front graphics were put up in at least four more locations in Northfield, according to a Sept. 14 Patriot Front Twitter post.
Disaffected members of Vanguard America, another white supremacist group, formed Patriot Front in Sept. 2017 after the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, according to the Anti-Defamation League website.
Public Safety could not be reached for comment come press time.
