One of the flyers in question. (Photo via Facebook)

After residents discovered a slew of bigoted flyers in Ward 4 this week, Councilmember Brandon Todd is recommending that his constituents contact the police.

“If you receive one of these hateful flyers, call the Metropolitan Police Dept. at 911 immediately,” Todd wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. Multiple residents responded by saying they had already contacted MPD about the flyers.

Todd said in a letter to constituents that “I have spoken to residents, driven around the Ward, and been in constant contact with the Metropolitan Police Department. The Commander and his team are aware of these flyers and are working with residents … I want you to know that this is not something we will tolerate in Ward 4 or the District of Columbia. All residents, regardless of race, color, creed, religious affiliation or sexual preference, deserve to feel safe and respected in their community.”

There are a number of flyers spotted in northern Ward 4, near Takoma, and all of them have two interlocking white ovals over a black background, along with the text “D.C. Counter Resistance.” The icon is a version of the one used by the Milice Française, a paramilitary organization in France during World War II that fought against the French resistance.

One flyer has a picture of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with the text “Even RBG backs the ban. Build the wall,” apparently a reference to the Supreme Court unanimously reinstating part of President Donald Trump’s travel ban. Another makes claims about a man who had been deported more than 20 times, who allegedly sexually assaulted a 65-year-old woman in Oregon, and tells people to “Report illegal aliens to DHS or ICE.” Residents spotted one flyer that Photoshops the face of Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz onto the image from famed pornographic film Debbie Does Dallas with the text, “Debbie Does Pakistan.” And one shows a photo of Kate Steinle, a woman whose murder has been exploited by anti-immigration activists.

While residents may find them upsetting, it’s not clear that the flyers are against the law.

“Typically when something like this happens, technically the law hasn’t been broken,” says MPD spokesperson Rachel Reid. “But we’ll generally patrol that area more often and make our presence known to make sure the public feels safe.”

D.C. code allows people to “affix a sign, advertisement, or poster to any public lamppost or appurtenances of a lamppost” as long as it follows certain regulations: they cannot be hung on trees, “no poster or placard shall be publicly displayed or exhibited if it is lewd, indecent, or vulgar, or if it pictorially represents the commission of or the attempt to commit any crime,” and the posters must be dated and removed after 180 days.

If a flyer is seen as lewd, the Department of Public Works, not MPD, is in charge of removing it. Residents can choose to tear down the flyers as well.

Mike Isaacson, an economics lecturer with John Jay College who has spent years monitoring far-right hate groups, says that the lack of contact information on the flyer “means likely no infrastructure or any attempt at building one” for the group trying to get attention.

In recent months, a number of anti-immigrant flyers have been hung on District streets, in addition to anti-Semitic graffiti, nooses found throughout the city, and other hate crimes and racist incidents.

Flyers that falsely purported to be from Immigration and Customs Enforcement appeared in different D.C. neighborhoods in June. Mayor Muriel Bowser called on residents to “Tear it down!” Later that month, flyers from white supremacist group Vanguard America appeared in Bloomingdale. Neo-Nazis hung flyers in downtown D.C. in July.