‘White Lives Matter’ Stickers Posted Around Memphis Suburb
Stickers promoting white supremacy were discovered at a park in the Memphis suburb of Collierville over the weekend.
According to the Commercial Appeal, reports across social media, particularly Facebook, showed a sticker with “Love White Children” written on it as well as a QR code linking to a “White Lives Matter” group-chat found out a water fountain near the soccer field at W.C. Johnson Park.
James Lewellen, Collierville’s Town Administrator, said he was notified Sunday night about the concern, and when he arrived at the park on Monday morning the sticker had been scratched off.
"It looks like it's a group going around and putting these things everywhere," he said, according to the Commercial Appeal. "There were a couple of them that showed up there (W.C. Johnson Park) and we took them down. We're watching out to see if they reappear somewhere else."
Stickers were also reportedly found in the suburb’s neighborhoods with some residents walking around and taking them down.
The QR code on the stickers leads to a Telegram for the group White Lives Matter in Tennessee where multiple posts showing people placing the stickers around the state. The group has nearly 10,800 subscribers on the instant messaging site Telegram and labels the movement as "a world-wide, legal, peaceful and anonymous initiative that furthers the interests of white children through real-life action."
White Lives Matter is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a neo-Nazi group founded in 2015 as a racist response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
Lewellen adds that officials will keep an eye out to see who posted the stickers because they’re placement, outside of promoting racism, is also considered destruction of public property.
"This is another one of those racial issues that's not acceptable in Collierville but it's happening everywhere, and there's not a lot we can do to prevent it," he said.