St. Joseph residents reported that dozens of White nationalist posters were displayed prominently in the city on Wednesday, according to the police department.
An area resident reported the signs to the police department early afternoon. St. Joseph Police Chief Joel Klein said the posters were largely found on main roadways such as Minnesota Street and College Avenue.
Signs are not allowed on power poles or in the public right of way, according to Klein, and officers were taking them down. This is the first time the St. Joseph area has seen such signs, Klein said. Similar posters have been seen in St. Cloud.
Ray Sjogren, a St. Joseph resident, said he first spotted the posters leaving the post office on Wednesday. Signs said “unapologetically white,” “hate speech is free speech” and “there are two genders.”
Each poster contained a logo and the name of a group: St. Cloud State White Student Union. The posters were found predominantly in the downtown St. Joseph area, Klein and Sjogren said.
Sjogren said he spoke with security at the College of St. Benedict, who told him they removed approximately 20 posters of a similar nature.
Sjogren was not sure if it was legal to post the signs on telephone poles, but he took down the ones he saw. “If it’s legal to put them up, then I’m doing civil disobedience,” said Sjogren. He planned to walk downtown and remove any other signs he saw later in the day.
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