Originally posted by WLWT5

COVINGTON, Ky. —

Once again, Ku Klux Klan promotional flyers have been spotted in a Greater Cincinnati neighborhood.

This time in Covington.

On Saturday morning flyers could be seen scattered around the 1600 block of Russell Street.

Covington police confirmed their existence in a statement, saying, "We can confirm that someone reported finding flyers with propaganda promoting the KKK in the 1600 block of Russell St. We find this activity reprehensible. It does not reflect the feeling of inclusiveness and community we want for our city. We are working to identify those responsible."

Earlier this month similar flyers were found in the Mount Auburn neighborhood of Cincinnati.

"I picked it up because it was folded trash on the street," a Mount Auburn resident named Rachel said at the time. "There was two other versions of this and I opened it up and was surprised to see the language that was on it, the sort of propaganda that was on it."

Another resident expressed their shock at finding the flyer, saying, "I'm kind of appalled and a little embarrassed because Mt. Auburn is better than that."

In June, the flyers were also seen in Cincinnati's Clifton neighborhood.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, KKK membership reached historic lows in 2023, with only 10 active regional chapters across the country known to still be operating. This is down significantly from the 42 documented by the Anti-Defamation League in 2017, and an extremely tiny fraction of the Klan's membership height of the 1920s. The 2017 ADL report also notes that "most Klans have fewer than 25 members."

Whether the flyers are being distributed by people actually affiliated with the KKK or by unrelated persons is not yet known, although the name of Kentucky's lone remaining chapter of the KKK appeared on the flyers each of the three times that the fliers have been found in the Greater Cincinnati area within the past two months. The Southern Poverty Law Center notes that random flyer distributions have been orchestrated by Klan chapters before in the past.

This comes as hate crimes have been very sharply on the rise nationwide in recent years according to the Justice Department.

There were 11,288 hate crimes reported nationwide by the Justice Department in 2022. This is a rise from 2021, which had 10,530 reported incidents. Meanwhile, 2020 saw 8,263 crimes reported, while 2019 saw just 3,963. This marks a 285% increase between 2019 and 2022. Data for 2023 has not yet been released by the Justice Department.