Three Stabbed at Ku Klux Klan Rally in California

Violence erupted after a small group representing the KKK gathered in a public park.

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Complex Original

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Mere days after a former Grand Wizard encouraged his followers to vote for Donald Trump, the Ku Klux Klan—which, despite what some Georgia lawmakers purport, is definitely a racist hate group—held a rally in Anaheim, California, that ended in bloodshed. According to the Los Angeles Times, when a small group representing the Klan announced they would gather at Pearson Park at 1:30 p.m., several dozen protestors showed up around 11 a.m. to hold a counter-rally. Around noon, "several men in black garb with Confederate flag patches arrived and were escorted by police around the edge of the park," and violence broke out shortly afterward.

Several protestors reportedly kicked a man whose shirt read "Grand Dragon," and a Klansman admitted to stabbing one protestor, but said it was in self-defense. The Klansmen allegedly also used the point of a flagpole as a weapon against protestors, and two other people were stabbed during the fight: one protestor and one victim whose identity is still unclear.

Brian Levin, the director of CSU San Bernardino's Center for the study of hate and extremism, was on the scene when the brawl broke out. He told the Times that he pulled the Klan leader to safety as one of the protestors was stabbed and asked him, "How do you feel that a Jewish guy just saved your life?" According to Levin, the man replied, "Thank you." Levin said there were no police officers on the scene prior to the fight, and suggested their presence might have prevented the violence altogether.

According to the Times, much of Anaheim's history is intertwined with the Klan; at one time Klansmen held five city council seats, and nearly 300 Klansmen lived there during the organization's heyday.

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