Surrey man offers ‘bounty’ to anyone who tears down white supremacist flyers

SURREY (NEWS 1130) — Ranil Prasad “deeply disagreed” with what was written on a white supremacist flyer he saw at Surrey Central station Monday, so he pulled it down. Now he’s offering $5 to anyone else who does the same.

Prasad noticed a man taping a piece of paper onto a portapotty near the bus loop he decided to take a closer look, given the kinds of things he’s seen posted near the SkyTrain station in the past.

“Sometimes they’re community events but most often it’s kind of a message board for bozos,” he said.

“In the past, I’ve noticed other signs at Surrey Central that people have ripped down, most notably anti-Black Lives Matter signs that I found quite objectionable.”

I saw someone putting these signs up at Surrey Central, so I tore this one down. Got yelled at by a white supremacist who was distributing it who claimed I was “anti-white” and “hateful.”

100% worth it, imo. pic.twitter.com/zEDto9khms

— Ranil Prasad (@run_neil) October 26, 2020

So, he decided to get rid of it.

“I didn’t rip it up or anything, I just took the poster down, it was still intact and I threw it in the trash.”

Prasad thought the man who had put the poster up was gone, but he was right around the corner and began to approach.

“He asked me if I was anti-white and he said my actions were hateful. I chose not to engage, I didn’t want to escalate anything so I decided to walk away,” Prasad explained.

The man persisted in asking Prasad if he was “anti-white,” to which Prasad responded, “Alright buddy.”

The brief confrontation came to an end when Prasad crossed the street and went into the SkyTrain Station.

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Prasad reported the incident to Transit Police via text so he could send them a picture.

“I noticed that the person who was putting up the posters had quite a few posters in his hands so it was good that I took the photo so that transit police could take them down,” he noted.

When officers arrived they couldn’t find the man, or anyone handing out literature.

Sgt. Clint Hampton confirmed the report, and that police weren’t able to locate anyone.

“It’s totally unacceptable to hand out any kind of literature that supports any form of hate,” he said.

“I think it’s disturbing that you’d see this kind of literature distributed anywhere along the transit system.”

Prasad didn’t fear for his safety, but he worried about the message being spread and the brazenness of the man who was spreading it.

“The most important thing that I took away from this is that this guy felt totally sound in his views,” he said.

“When he put the poster up he didn’t put the poster up and then run away, he wasn’t wearing a mask or anything that would hide his identity. He was out in the open just putting up white supremacist signs. It’s not like we were in a community that was less diverse, this is Surrey, B.C. It’s a diverse community and this is a high traffic location. The fact that this guy felt emboldened enough to do this, maybe he wouldn’t have felt that way a few years ago. It’s really a sign of the times.”

ATTN: There is now a bounty on these flyers. If you DM me a picture of you holding them, I’ll personally give you $5 for each one.

Please ensure that you tear them into tiny pieces, and that they’re recycled!

— Ranil Prasad (@run_neil) October 26, 2020

The man had a small stack of the signs, and Prasad decided he wanted to encourage other people that see the signs to do what he did.

“I decided that I wasn’t going to go back to the scene and run into this guy again. So I decided that if I physically couldn’t take them down then maybe people who see the tweet would be tempted to take it down themselves,” he said.

“I decided that if people take these flyers down I’d give them a reward, so I put a bounty on the flyers.”

With files from Paul James