‘No Place for Hate’ Vigil Planned in Response to White Supremacist Propaganda Found in Centre County

Local faith leaders have organized a vigil to bring the Centre County community together in solidarity against hate after multiple places were vandalized with a white supremacist group’s recruitment propaganda last week.

The “No Place for Hate: Centre County Solidarity Candlelight ” will be held at 4:30 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of State College Presbyterian Church, 132 W. Beaver Ave. in State College.

“This event is a time of gathering to recognize the humanity and dignity of all people through sacred readings, poems, prayers, and music,” a Facebook event for the vigil reads. “We will be expressing our solidarity in our belief that Centre County is no place for hate.”

Those who attend should wear masks and observe social distancing and are asked to bring a candle if they wish to participate in the candle lighting.

The Facebook event lists the hosts as State College Presbyterian Church, University Mennonite Church, University Baptist and Brethern Church and the Lutheran Campus Ministry at Penn State.

More than 50 recruitment stickers bearing the name and website of the white supremacist group Patriot Front were placed in more than 30 locations around downtown State College, including light polls, traffic signals and directory signs, and were discovered on Jan. 7. Some also were found around the Penn State campus, according to State College Police Chief John Gardner.

The stickers were also found in downtown Bellefonte. A Pride mural alongside Jake’s Cards and Games, 131 W. High St. in Bellefonte, was defaced on Jan. 8 with the same hate group’s website spray painted in multiple places, as well as an image of the United States with one of the group’s slogans, ‘Not stolen, conquered.’

The mural was repainted by community members the following afternoon.

Gardner said two State College detectives and a Penn State police detective are working in conjunction on the case.

State College police released on Monday surveillance camera images of two individuals they believe were involved with placing the stickers on property in State College. The two are among four people who are “persons of interest in these cases,” police said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the State College Police Department at (814) 234-7150, by email or by submitting an anonymous tip through the police department’s website.

Patriot Front, a white supremacist group that calls for American fascism and white nationalism, formed after breaking away from a similar organization, Vanguard America, following the 2017 ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies it as a hate group.

In 2019, ProPublica called Patriot Front “perhaps the most active white supremacist group in the nation.” Its organization occurs largely in private Internet communications, which BuzzFeed News reported in October “reveal a sophisticated network of extremists who are training for violence.”

“What we’ve learned is this is a national movement, obviously, and what we’re able to ascertain right now is that this is sort of a recruitment drive,” Gardner said of the graffiti found in Centre County, adding that local police learned a similar incident occurred on the Penn State Altoona campus in December.

Gardner said one of the detectives working the case in State College is authorized to access FBI systems and the department will be utilizing those resources.

“We’re going to use our full ability and full authority to try to identify who these individuals are,” he said.

“We’re not going to leave anything to chance.”