On Saturday, a KKK group planned to hold a walking protest at Pearson Park in Anaheim, according to the city’s police department.
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A brawl erupted in Anaheim, California, on Saturday during a rally for white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan when counter-protesters attacked members of the hate group, driving them from the area. The arrested Klan member said he stabbed the protester in self defense.
Klan members had just arrived at Anaheim’s Pearson Park when they came face to face with protesters. When six KKK members, reportedly identified because of the Confederate Flag patches on their shirts, arrived in an SUV, the crowd descended on them.
Brian Levin, the Director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSU San Bernardino was on the scene and helped to protect one of the KKK members who was beaten and kicked by a protester. A Klansmen being led away in handcuffs yelled out that he stabbed someone in self-defense after the counterprotesters allegedly attacked the KKK. It’s pretty graphic, so think before playing.
“Regardless of an individual or groups’ beliefs or ideologies, they are entitled to live without the fear of physical violence and have the right, under the law, to defend themselves when attacked”, a police statement said. All were released, the AP reports, when police determined that their actions had been in self-defense. Seven protesters are still in jail for allegedly beating, stomping, and attacking Klansmen with wooden posts.
Donald Trump looked to clarify a muddy weekend on Monday that centered around support being shown to the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination by David Duke (former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan) following bloodshed at a KKK event in Anaheim, California.
A Ku Klux Klan leader injured in a brawl with protesters in Southern California says he called police before the rally asking for security but was told, “We don’t do that”.
“Thank you”, the klan leader replied, according to Levin. Afterwards, Levin queried the Klansman on how it felt to have his life saved by a Jewish man.
On Monday night, some 300 people took part in a candlelight vigil and “peace protest” in the same park.
“The only reason we remember Anaheim for the Klan is because they fought the Klan so hard”, said Phil Brigandi, an Orange County historian and author. In the 1920s, members of the hate group occupied four out of five of the city council seats, and nine out of ten spots on the police force.
Like many other USA cities, Anaheim has a history intertwined with the KKK.
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Sgt Wyatt said that although they were released, prosecutors will review the case and decide whether to file criminal charges. “Members of the sponsoring group typically pass out literature and hold signs with messages, which while controversial, are protected by the First Amendment”.
