Antisemitic Flyers Found Hours Before Gun Rights Activists and Extremists Packed DuPage County Board Meeting

A Winfield resident was “disgusted” to discover antisemitic flyers littered across neighborhood driveways and lawns Tuesday morning.

The plastic bags containing the flyers, which included antisemitic conspiracy theory materials published by Goyim Defense League (GDL), also contained pellets that have been positively identified as a common form of rat poison. They were collected and discarded.

GDL propagandists commonly use identical flyers in flyering drives across over a dozen states, as well as during in-person protests. Themes also include anti-LGBTQ* and anti-immigration white supremacist messaging. Followers are known to travel the country livestreaming, and in a disturbing series of events documented by Left Coast Right Watch and Southern California Research Club, one member was exposed for harassing Jewish communities in person—even targeting children.

Polish police arrested the group’s leader, 39-year old neo-Nazi Jon Minadeo Jr., for holding signs advertising hate speech outside Auschwitz concentration camp in August 2022.

Links to the organization’s official media platform have been removed from the images shared here.

The quiet subdivision where the flyers were distributed sits only five minutes away from County Board offices, where hundreds were gathered in support of DuPage County Sheriff James Mendrick yesterday. 

Mendrick joined a majority of IL sheriffs earlier this month in declaring his refusal to enforce the new state ban on semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. 

Sheriff’s departments across the state have vowed to defy the legislation, though sheriffs in Cook and Lake counties—the first and third most populous in the state—have expressed support of the law. Lawmakers and DuPage County board members are calling on Mendrick to retract his statement.

Mendrick was not in attendance at yesterday’s board meeting.

The public Facebook group and second amendment advocacy organization Illinois Gun Owners Together heavily promoted the county board protest. 

They are also targeting an upcoming McHenry County Board meeting on January 31, calling upon board members to designate McHenry a “second amendment sanctuary county.”

According to antifascist researchers, IGOT has ties to existing far-right hate groups in IL, including the Proud Boys and Three Percenters alongside other militia group associates. 

The page has faced frequent suspensions for sharing racist and sexist content. The second amendment rights club also rallied in support of Kyle Rittenhouse in 2020. 

Group membership has exploded since Governor JB Pritzker signed a statewide assault weapons ban on January 11. The National Rifle Association filed a federal lawsuit against the semiautomatic weapons ban just yesterday.

In previous GDL flyering incidents, bags have typically been weighed down with rice, sand or stones. 

This is the first Illinois incident researchers are aware of including toxic materials.