WINONA, Minn. – A swastika symbol was found scrawled on a bench on a street at the Cotter Schools campus 1-1/2 weeks ago. This was about the same time that a neo-Nazi group, Aryan Freedom Network, dropped recruiting propaganda in the Cotter neighborhood on the West End. A janitor scraped the swastika from the bench, a Cotter source said. The exact night of the AFN propaganda drop was never ascertained, but the messages, encased in zip-lock baggies, began being reported strewn on lawns the morning of May 14. Two nights earlier a liquid-filled bottle was heaved at a factory on Fifth Street from a drive-by vehicle. This too was in the Cotter neighborhood. Police report not finding connnections.
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Fearful symbol. The swastika was the symbol of Nazi Germany leading up to World War II and through the war. The symbol was outlawed in most of Europe after the war but persists as a terrorizing symbol with shadowy neo-Nazis in the United States.