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KKK members linked to violent brawl released

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LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA AP

A Ku Klux Klansman, left, fights a counter protester for an American flag after members of the KKK tried to start a “White Lives Matter” rally at Pearson Park in Anaheim on Saturday.

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In this photo provided by OC Weekly a falling Ku Klux Klansman gets shoved by a counter-protester behind him, after members of the KKK tried to start an anti-immigration rally at Pearson Park in Anaheim on Saturday. (Eric Hood/OC Weekly via AP)

ANAHEIM, California » Five Ku Klux Klan members who were arrested following a vicious brawl in Anaheim were released because evidence shows they acted in self-defense, police said today.

Seven people who remained in custody were seen beating, stomping and attacking the Klansmen with wooden posts, Sgt. Daron Wyatt said.

A police statement said the clash, which erupted after six Klan members arrived at a park Saturday for a planned anti-immigration rally, was started by a larger group of 10 to 20 counter-protesters who had “the intent of perpetrating violence.”

Police said the Klansmen stabbed three counter-protesters with knives and the decorative end of a flag pole.

“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,” the statement said.

Mayhem ensued Saturday as soon as the Klan members pulled up in a black SUV for an anti-immigration rally they had advertised in advance and pulled out signs saying “White Lives Matter.”

Dozens of protesters swarmed in and someone smashed a window. The SUV then sped away, leaving three Klansmen dressed in black shirts decorated with the Klan cross and Confederate flag patches outnumbered.

“(The counter-protesters) were so angry, they would have torn these folks limb from limb,” said Brian Levin, who directs the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. “I was afraid for their lives.”

Levin, who went to Pearson Park expecting to record the rally for research, found himself protecting the Klansmen until police could intervene. On a video Levin shot and posted to Twitter, he later asked one of them, “How do you feel that a Jewish person helped save your life today?”

“I thank you. I thank you,” said the Klansman, waving away the question with his blood-spattered arm. “I would have saved a colored man’s life,” he added.

Much of the clash was captured on video and posted online. In one, a man cries “I got stabbed,” lifting his T-shirt to show a wound to his stomach. A fire hydrant where the man briefly sat was covered in blood.

The Klansmen were initially booked for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon, and seven of the approximately 30 counter-protesters were arrested on suspicion of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury

Like many other cities across the United States, Anaheim has a history intertwined with the KKK. What sets the city apart, however, is its decisive backlash after the Klan gained four of five City Council seats in 1924. Those Klansmen were ousted in a recall election after their affiliations with the Klan became public and following a nighttime KKK initiation rally that attracted an estimated 10,000 people to the city park where Saturday’s violence erupted.

“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. “The more the Klan came out of the shadows, the more people became aware of it and the opposition grew.”

In the near century since then, Anaheim has gone from 95 percent white to become 53 percent Hispanic and 27 percent white, according to data with the U.S. Census Bureau.

“We’re a far cry from those terrible times and the Klan is really an anachronism,” Levin said. “Anaheim is now a diverse community that is in many ways an amusement and sports capital of California. This is just an example of how a small group of people can tarnish the name of a community.”

Rosa Madrigal, who was at the park Sunday with her husband and three children, said she was shocked to even hear about the KKK holding a rally in Anaheim, let alone the violence that ensued.

“I didn’t even think it was true when I heard it,” said Madrigal, 25. “It’s crazy, especially in a park where you take your kids.”

When the melee started, Levin said he saw no uniformed officers.

Wyatt said police were there and engaged with people at one end of the fight, and called for additional resources to deploy to the other end. The event stretched along an entire city block, he said.

Police Chief Raul Quezada said his officers were able to respond quickly enough to arrest all but one of the main participants, a counter-protester who remains at-large.

The Klan members were booked for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon before being released. The seven people who remained in custody were booked for assault with a deadly weapon or elder abuse for stomping on a Klan member who’s older than 65 years old, Wyatt said.

Though the Klan members were released, prosecutors will review the case and decide whether to file criminal charges, he said.

Chris Barker, who identified himself as the imperial wizard of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, told The Associated Press by phone from North Carolina that his members were holding a peaceful anti-immigration demonstration and acted in self-defense.

“If we’re attacked, we will attack back,” said Barker, whose organization lists Pelham, N.C., as its headquarters. Last year, the group drew headlines when it protested the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Capitol.

Nationwide, the number of active KKK groups increased to 190 in 2015 after falling in 2013 and 2014, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

In January 2015, packets containing fliers from the “Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan” and condemning the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. were left in the driveways of about 40 homes in Santa Ana, about 8 miles south of Anaheim.

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Associated Press writers Christine Armario and Daisy Nguyen contributed to this report.

8 responses to “KKK members linked to violent brawl released”

  1. DeltaDag says:

    Not to trivialize the story, but the “decorative end of a flag pole” is called a finial.

  2. inverse says:

    The Klansman that got beat up looks a little like the late Freddy Mercury who was the voice of Queen. Not to worry, if Trump becomes president of the US, he will make sure to tip the balance from Obama’s Black lives matter to Trumps White lives matter and put the white back in Whitehouse. Obama played on people’s fears to win the Whitehouse for 8 years and Trump has copied Obama’s playbook and will tip the race tide in the opposite direction if he wins.

    • HanabataDays says:

      Trump knows exactly who David Duke is because he condemned him in a NYT editorial back in 2000. And he quoted Mussolini yesterday on Twitter. Put the white back in the “White House”? Only if the next President invites him to her inaugural. But don’t hold your breath.

      • inverse says:

        Hanabatadays: I agree with you. Barring something crazy like Bloomberg getting into the race as an independent, although I doubt that still would not change the outcome of a Trump vs Hillary match up, Hillary would win. There just are not enough Klansmen and White power sympathizers to overcome the minority vote in the major swing States like Florida, Ohio, Michigan, etc. That was clear in the last presidential election of Romney vs. Obama although Romney was too pansy and should have gotten way more dynamic and aggresive before getting biotch slapped by Candy Crowley. Actually Romney would have made a good president and actually bring the nation together instead of getting it further ripped apart under Obama. Repubs have no choice but to go after each other and all Hillary has to do is bide her time until the Superdelegates give her all the votes she needs for the Demo nomination and then they can go all out to reveal the TRUE racist nature of Trump. There is as story that some African American who used to work at a Trump casino was instructed to hide and not show his face when Trump and his wife Ivanka were at the Casino. Garans the Demo have already interviewed and if they believe it is true, which I believe is true, they will use that interview in a national Trump attack ad and it will be EFFECTIVE. Trump IS a racist and even David Duke and the KKK knows this as well and the reason why he supports Trump. Like Paula Dean, Michael Richards, Mel Gibson, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Sarah Palin (eg lived in Hawaii to go to school but soon left because “too many Asians and Pacific Islanders” made her uncomfortable), Scott Ca an, etc. they cannot hide it as it just bubbles up eventually to the surface.

  3. Pocho says:

    Where’s Obama, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Fredericka Wilson to protest this violence against the White Supremists? They have a right to congregate as with Black Lives Matter! Do they condone the hate violence against the group? Authorities was there to keep peace so the meeting was allowed and legal. Shame on the protesters!

    • AhiPoke says:

      Progressives, including the people you mentioned, only believe in protecting the voices of the people who support their views. People with dissenting opinions are not allowed. Politically correctness has been a cleaver way to shut out anyone who the progressives do not agree with. Look at what’s happening on college campuses all across the country. Radical leftists are welcomed but anyone with a conservative position are not allowed to speak.

    • TigerEye says:

      Well then, I’ll take a wild guess as to which side of the line you’d be shouting from in a public brawl like this one.

      By the way, where are you every single time there’s a story posted about a white shooter, bomber or rapist? I’ll take another guess that you’re scrolling past them, looking for the “right kind” of killer story to do your one-handed typing under.

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