Multiple stabbings, other injuries at KKK rally.

[The Romulan Republic]

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local ... 81961.html

Police said three people were stabbed, and 12 were arrested, in separate incidents at a Ku Klux Klan gathering that turned violent in Anaheim on Saturday.
Police were still searching for one man believed to be involved in the melee late Saturday.
3 Killed in Suspected Street-Racing Crash on 5 Fwy
The stabbings broke out about 11 a.m. near the site of an planned afternoon rally at Pearson Park located in the 400 block of North Harbor Boulevard, according to Sgt. Daron Wyatt with the Anaheim Police Department.
Police had said Friday that the department was aware of a KKK "walking protest" planned at the park for 1:30 p.m. Saturday, and that the group had held similar rallies before in Orange County. "APD will be monitoring the situation for any violations of law," the department said on its Facebook page.
3 Stabbed at KKK March, 12 Arrested in Orange County[LA] 3 Stabbed at KKK March, 12 Arrested in Orange County
Thirteen were arrested and three stabbed when groups clash at an Orange County KKK march. Rick Montanez reports for the NBC4 News at 8 on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016. (Published Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016)
The attacks began when a group of Klansman pulled up in a vehicle near the corner of Cypress Street and Harbor Boulevard where a group of counter protesters had gathered, Wyatt said.
A Klansman stabbed a counter-protester in the chest with an eagle figure at the end of the flag, according to Wyatt. The protester was transported to a local hospital in critical condition.
Southern California Images in the News[2016 UPDATED 2/26] Southern California Images in the News
About one block away, another protester was allegedly stabbed by a Klansman, who was later taken into custody. The protester's condition was unknown.
Counter-protesters stomped on Klan members, injuring them, Wyatt said.
Police said six Klan members and seven counter protesters were arrested following the brawl.
Ultimately, seven were booked, four were released and one detained was a juvenile.
Firefighters also treated another protester who suffered a minor stab wound.
Tyler Matias-Lopez, 16, was in the park with his family watching as the violence ensued.
"There was one guy that got kicked in the face. But there was around 10 people that just started hitting the guy," Matias-Lopez said.
According to the Anaheim police Facebook post, the KKK rallies typicaly involve literature being passed out – a process that is protected under the First Amendment.
"It is not uncommon for these groups to place their literature in yards and driveways in the surrounding area prior to or immediately following their gathering. This dissemination of literature is not illegal," the post says.
Editor's Note: Police initially told NBC4 that a KKK member was stabbed, but later said a counter-protester was the stabbing victim. This story has been updated.

Horrible.

Unfortunately, I expect we'll see more of this kind of shit as Trump's vile campaign continues to stir up and encourage such people.

[Channel72]

It seems in this incident, the violence was not initiated by the KKK, but by counter-protesters. Or at least, that's how I'm reading CNN's report on the event.

[Broomstick]

Since the 1980's, if not as early as the '70's, Klan and Nazi demonstrations have required heavy security to protect the Klan and Nazis, as most people really don't like their sort. It's a coin-toss which side starts the fights.

[Joun_Lord]

I wonder why the huge difference in articles. The former seems to make it seem one sided with the KKK being the aggressors while the latter implies both sides got in some licks.

But whatever, I hate the KKK but don't even think they deserve to be physically attacked assuming the counter-protesters were the ones who threw down first. Their speech can be pretty repellent but, at the risk of exposing my white privilege, people should not be driven to violence by words.

Also I think its unfair to link Trump to this. Trump is an asshole who no doubt stirs up some pretty horrible view points and tries to legitimize them, but to think he'd have an effect on a freaking KKK having a rally is foolish. The KKK have been doing their stupid ghost cosplay parties since well before anyone on this site was born and certainly well before Trump started trying to run for President. No Trump will stir up assholes who we can't just easily pick out because they are wearing sheets.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Also I think its unfair to link Trump to this. Trump is an asshole who no doubt stirs up some pretty horrible view points and tries to legitimize them, but to think he'd have an effect on a freaking KKK having a rally is foolish. The KKK have been doing their stupid ghost cosplay parties since well before anyone on this site was born and certainly well before Trump started trying to run for President. No Trump will stir up assholes who we can't just easily pick out because they are wearing sheets.

While what you say is true, it's also not fair to go the other way and absolve Trump of all responsibility, given a rather substantial component of his rhetoric and campaign has been rather explicitly linked to the same undercurrent of xenophobia and racism on which groups like the Klan feed.

[The Romulan Republic]

It seems in this incident, the violence was not initiated by the KKK, but by counter-protesters. Or at least, that's how I'm reading CNN's report on the event.

Apparently their were multiple incidents, but the way my article words it, at least two were started by the Klan, with protestors fighting back.

[Patroklos]

Your article also makes it seem a klansmen started a fight with a normal flag pole topper. Seems wierd to use that as your weapon if you initiate the violence.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, if they were planning to start a fight, presumably they'd bring a weapon.

If tempers flared at the scene and they engaged in a spontaneous act of violence or something like that, they might use whatever was in their hand, even if they struck the first blow.

[Joun_Lord]

While what you say is true, it's also not fair to go the other way and absolve Trump of all responsibility, given a rather substantial component of his rhetoric and campaign has been rather explicitly linked to the same undercurrent of xenophobia and racism on which groups like the Klan feed.

Absolve Trump of responsibility for the racist shenanigans his campaign has created? Certainly not, quite a bit of racist rhetoric and actions can be linked to Trump and his stances towards illegal aliens/illegal immigrants/undocumented workers amongst others. You can say he is responsible for that because he is.

But by now means is Trump saying anything new or saying even the worst shit in mainstream. Trump is using an already existing problem to his advantage, the fear of outsiders, the fear of different people, all that mumbo jumbo jet. He did not create it and he is not responsible for it beyond what he does personally. The KKK and their fucking disgusting bullshit would be holding rallies and attacking or being attacked by people who are afraid of ghosts with or without Trump. People were saying "build a wall" and arrest all the illegals for decades atleast.

Trump is just an attention whore asshole with a mic who does not cause these problems or has any control of them but is more then glad to dickride the popularity of those stances. He's like a toupee'd parasite sucking on a tumor polluting a body. He causes problems with his sucking and is more visible then the tumor buried under the skin but is not the source of the body's ills nor has much effect on it. ITS NOT A TUMOR!!!!!!!!

Thats not a defense of Trump mind you, but just saying you can't really blame him for most of the racist bullshit that occurs in Muricaland.

[K. A. Pital]

In other words, no use blaming Trump for racists. Blame the racists for the success of Trump.

[The Romulan Republic]

They feed each other, in a horrifying symbiotic relationship.

But Trump is, of course, just the newest major manifestation of very old problems with racism, sexism, religious bigotry, and nationalist xenophobia in America. I certainly don't mean to suggest that its all on Trump.

[the atom]

I wonder why the huge difference in articles. The former seems to make it seem one sided with the KKK being the aggressors while the latter implies both sides got in some licks.

The articles aren't contradictory. In both, the KKK stabs three people while CNN simply refrains from mentioning who started it.

But whatever, I hate the KKK but don't even think they deserve to be physically attacked assuming the counter-protesters were the ones who threw down first. Their speech can be pretty repellent but, at the risk of exposing my white privilege, people should not be driven to violence by words.

One article says that the KKK started it.
Other article doesn't say who started it
Therefore the counter-protestors probably started it.

Yeah okay.

Also I think its unfair to link Trump to this. Trump is an asshole who no doubt stirs up some pretty horrible view points and tries to legitimize them, but to think he'd have an effect on a freaking KKK having a rally is foolish. The KKK have been doing their stupid ghost cosplay parties since well before anyone on this site was born and certainly well before Trump started trying to run for President. No Trump will stir up assholes who we can't just easily pick out because they are wearing sheets.

The KKK's level of activity has always waxed and waned with the prevailing racial climate. They're just the manifestation of America's racial intolerance. When the latter rises, so do they. Trump absolutely bears responsibility for this.

[Channel72]

One article says that the KKK started it.
Other article doesn't say who started it
Therefore the counter-protestors probably started it.

Yeah okay.

CNN words it like the counter-protesters started it:

Anaheim police spokesman Sgt. Daron Wyatt said the KKK planned a "walking protest" at Pearson Park. The counterprotesters arrived beforehand and attacked when the KKK got out of their vehicles around noon, he said.

[Lord Revan]

Though I suspect that unless you got pictures/video showing clearly that one side or the other started this then it's likely we'll never know who really started the fight as obviously both sides will accuse the other.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Absolve Trump of responsibility for the racist shenanigans his campaign has created? Certainly not, quite a bit of racist rhetoric and actions can be linked to Trump and his stances towards illegal aliens/illegal immigrants/undocumented workers amongst others. You can say he is responsible for that because he is.

But by now means is Trump saying anything new or saying even the worst shit in mainstream. Trump is using an already existing problem to his advantage, the fear of outsiders, the fear of different people, all that mumbo jumbo jet. He did not create it and he is not responsible for it beyond what he does personally. The KKK and their fucking disgusting bullshit would be holding rallies and attacking or being attacked by people who are afraid of ghosts with or without Trump. People were saying "build a wall" and arrest all the illegals for decades atleast.

Trump is just an attention whore asshole with a mic who does not cause these problems or has any control of them but is more then glad to dickride the popularity of those stances. He's like a toupee'd parasite sucking on a tumor polluting a body. He causes problems with his sucking and is more visible then the tumor buried under the skin but is not the source of the body's ills nor has much effect on it. ITS NOT A TUMOR!!!!!!!!

Thats not a defense of Trump mind you, but just saying you can't really blame him for most of the racist bullshit that occurs in Muricaland.

Isn't this ... um ... exactly what I said, just in more words?

Though I suspect that unless you got pictures/video showing clearly that one side or the other started this then it's likely we'll never know who really started the fight as obviously both sides will accuse the other.

If I had to make a completely naive guess about the situation, I would guess that both sides started different incidents. Most likely, it was a relatively large group on both sides yelling at each other, things got heated and escalated, with individuals from both sides starting an altercation with a member from the other. Of course, I have 0 evidence to back this up, but this is what tends to happen when fights break out at large rallies/protests.

[Wild Zontargs]

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.

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

A police statement said the clash, which erupted after six Klan members arrived at a park Saturday for an anti-immigration rally, was started by a 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 and pulled out signs reading "White Lives Matter." Dozens of protesters swarmed in and someone smashed a window. The SUV then sped away, leaving three Klansmen 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.

Anaheim is known for pushing back against the Klan in 1924 when its members gained four of five City Council seats. Those Klansmen were ousted in a recall election after their Klan affiliation became public and following a nighttime KKK initiation rally that attracted an estimated 10,000 people to the same 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.

In the near century since then, Anaheim has gone from 95 percent white to become 53 percent Hispanic and 27 percent white, according to census data.

"We're a far cry from those terrible times and the Klan is really an anachronism," Levin said.

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 a 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.

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.

But wait, there's more!

A Ku Klux Klan leader who was injured when his small group of demonstrators brawled with counter-protesters in a Southern California park this weekend said Monday that he called police beforehand asking for security and was told, "We don't do that."

Will Quigg said in an interview with The Associated Press that he contacted the Anaheim Police Department but that the agency denied his requests for a police presence. The KKK then told officers that the group would hire an outside security company.

"They said, 'No, you can't do that either,'" Quigg said.

The Police Department is facing scrutiny for its response after three people were stabbed and several others were injured in the melee Saturday involving several dozen people and spanning a city block. Investigators determined that Klan members acted in self-defense after the counter-protesters attacked.

On Monday night, some 300 people took part in a candlelight vigil and "peace protest" in the same park. The group marched from Pearson Park to City Hall, and although the gathering got loud at times, police Sgt. Daron Wyatt said it remained peaceful.

"There were some people from Saturday's protest who showed up at the end and started yelling, but there was no violence and no need for police intervention," he said.

Organizers said they wanted to show that Anaheim is a peaceful, tolerant city.

The Police Department had notified the public ahead of Saturday's Klan gathering that the KKK planned to hold an anti-immigration protest at the park about 3 miles from Disneyland, but at least one witness said he saw no uniformed officers when the attack began.

When Quigg and about five others arrived they were confronted by dozens of angry counter-protesters.

Wyatt said officers were present, but he declined to say how many. He acknowledged that Quigg had contacted the department but believed that the group leader was asking for police to act as personal security guards.

"He was told how to contract for officers to do that, but did not want to spend the money," Wyatt said.

Eugene O'Donnell, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, said the department's response about contracting officers is as if the KKK rally was the same as "an Oktoberfest or a New Year's Day event."

"It's their way of saying, 'We have no reason to believe there will be any trouble beyond the trouble you get at a rock concert," he said, adding police are obligated to ensure public safety.

Police departments are facing criticism for overpolicing, chilling free speech and being heavy-handed, O'Donnell said. That can make it difficult for officers to know how to handle a protest event.

"Sometimes the best presence is a very low key presence," he said.

Anaheim police said a plan was in place and officers at the protest quickly called for backup when the violence broke out. Additional officers arrived within less than two minutes.

"Officers rendered medical aid to those who were injured and arrested all but one of the suspects," the agency said in a statement.

Five KKK members arrested after the brawl later were released because evidence showed they acted in self-defense, police said. Seven people still in custody were seen beating, stomping and attacking the Klansmen with wooden posts, Wyatt said.

Police said the Klansmen stabbed three counter-protesters.

"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.

Quigg said he was thrown to the ground, hit with a pipe, stomped and struck with two-by-fours. He said his right hand was fractured and his spleen and a rib bruised. He said the left side of his chest is "black and blue and swollen up to the size of a softball."

Quigg said he did not stab anyone.

"What was done was done to protect our lives," he said. "Our lives were in jeopardy."

Like many other U.S. cities, Anaheim has a history intertwined with the KKK. In the 1920s, Klan members gained four of five City Council seats but were ousted after their affiliation became public.

The group's presence in the state is extremely small today, said Brian Levin, who directs the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

What a clusterfuck.

[Wild Zontargs]

Though I suspect that unless you got pictures/video showing clearly that one side or the other started this then it's likely we'll never know who really started the fight as obviously both sides will accuse the other.

Well, we have some video, and what we have makes it look like the counter-protesters started it:

[Joun_Lord]

I wonder why the huge difference in articles. The former seems to make it seem one sided with the KKK being the aggressors while the latter implies both sides got in some licks.

The articles aren't contradictory. In both, the KKK stabs three people while CNN simply refrains from mentioning who started it.

But whatever, I hate the KKK but don't even think they deserve to be physically attacked assuming the counter-protesters were the ones who threw down first. Their speech can be pretty repellent but, at the risk of exposing my white privilege, people should not be driven to violence by words.

One article says that the KKK started it.
Other article doesn't say who started it
Therefore the counter-protestors probably started it.

Yeah okay.

The CNN article seems to imply it was the counter-protesters who started the throw down, saying "counterprotesters arrived beforehand and attacked when the KKK got out of their vehicles around noon". The NBC article also barely give one sentence to the injuries of the KKKunts while the CNN details they were heavily injured. So a substantial difference in the articles.

The KKK's level of activity has always waxed and waned with the prevailing racial climate. They're just the manifestation of America's racial intolerance. When the latter rises, so do they. Trump absolutely bears responsibility for this.

Yeah sure they grow when racial intolerance is one the rise, they along with other racist groups are quite large nowadays (though nowhere near their heyday when they had millions amongst their ranks). But not because of Trump. Because of Obama doing the horrible, horrible, terrible crime of merely existing while black. Their embiggened numbers are more then likely why Trump is enjoying such success and any effect Trump has on their numbers are minimal

As KA put it far more simply and not doubt far more clearly, Trump is not responsible for them but they are responsible for Trump.

Isn't this ... um ... exactly what I said, just in more words?

Not really, I was more or less saying what KA Pital simply put, that Trump is not responsible but they are responsible for Trump. I just went about it in a probably confusing and long winded manner. As demonstrated I can create a whole American waistline sized post to explain myself while clouding the point like the windows of that car on the TITanic.