Baltimore police investigate hate note left in Fells Point
Police are probing a hate note and bags of rocks left on Thames Street in Fells Point, where merchants already fear teen takeovers.
Baltimore police responded around noon Friday to the 1600 block of Thames Street in Fells Point after a suspicious package was reported, and business owners found bags of rocks, a threatening note and flyers tied to the Ku Klux Klan. Officers are investigating it as a possible hate crime in one of Baltimore’s most visible waterfront business corridors.
The material landed in a neighborhood already on edge over large youth gatherings. FOX Baltimore said the notes warned about “teen takeovers” and were signed by a Ku Klux Klan-affiliated group. The Baltimore Banner described the material as an apparent white supremacist flyer, while the note’s language, suggesting that youth meetups “should result in teen chain gangs,” added a racist threat to a broader warning aimed at young people gathering in public.
Fells Point merchants have spent the summer pressing for help as crowds swell near the harbor after dark. On June 22, more than 1,000 young people gathered near Thames Street and South Broadway, and The Baltimore Sun reported that businesses sounded the alarm after teen gatherings in the district. That pressure has made the waterfront feel less like a leisure destination and more like a recurring public-safety test for the people who work and live there.
The episode also fits a wider pattern of intimidation in Baltimore’s commercial neighborhoods. A 2025 incident in Federal Hill involving KKK flyers drew a rally in the city, showing that hateful propaganda has surfaced before in another nearby district. In Fells Point, that history raises the stakes for a waterfront block that depends on restaurants, bars and tourism to keep weekend traffic moving.
Baltimore police have a hate-crimes policy listed as Policy 815, and the department has already used crowd-control measures in the area. FOX Baltimore reported that police issued a dispersal order in Fells Point late Saturday night after what officers described as an unlawful assembly. That response underscores how quickly a hate-message incident on Thames Street can spill into a broader argument over public safety, crowd management and who feels welcome in one of Baltimore’s most watched visitor districts.
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