ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – People living along Gravois Avenue have reported seeing black spray paint appearing at several places throughout South City bearing the name of a local white supremacist group.
They claim the group, Bullion State Nationalists, or BSN, has also been posting stickers and fliers throughout the area that also include white supremacist imagery and claim the group is monitoring the area.
One resident sent First Alert 4 images of tagged locations that were within a block of Middle Eastern businesses in the Bevo neighborhood.
One of the locations was on Wilcox, just around the corner from Oasis International, an organization that helps refugees. Mark Akers, the founder of the organization, had seen the graffiti but hadn’t realized its meaning until First Alert 4 asked about it on Tuesday.
“Anytime I see graffiti, I think it’s disappointing,” Akers said. “When you realize that some of these taggings have another meaning, that’s even more concerning.”
Jordan Kadosh, the regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, described BSN as a very small, local white supremacist group but one that was responsible for a number of vandalism incidents in the area.
He said that white supremacist activity, antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents have increased this fall throughout the conflict in Israel, which many hate groups have used as an excuse to promote extremist ideas.
“It’s really grotesque,” he said. “It’s awful that someone would use a war or a terror attack overseas to their own nefarious ends.”
Akers said he was glad to see much of the graffiti in the neighborhood scrubbed off or painted over. He said he felt that his organization and the people they helped had largely experienced support in St. Louis.
“Love is stronger than hate,” Akers said. “Anytime there’s anything on the negative side, I want to be welcoming to them and let them know that’s in the minority.”
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