KKK’s March in Charlottesville, Va. Met With Throngs of Protesters

Charlottesville, Va. – Scores of protesters shouted down homegrown terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan, as the reviled group marched in Charlottesville, Va. on Saturday (July 8) to protest the removal of Confederate statues from the city.

USA Today reports that more than 1,000 multiracial demonstrators flooded this city’s downtown area Saturday to shout down about 50 Klan members, some of whom were flanked by Confederate flags and hooded, as they marched to Justice Park.

Protesters got creative (and a little buck) with their signs, with slogans including, “#BlocKKKparty,” “Not OKKK,” “My Life Matters,” as well as that held up by the guy pictured right:

More than 100 police officers in riot gear protected the KKK’s right of free speech, and 23 people were arrested in sometimes contentious confrontations. The outlet reports that police used pepper spray and tear gas to help disperse the crowd.

The KKK was protesting the Charlottesville City Council’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a public park. A court injunction has put the statue’s removal on hold until a November hearing.

The Lee statue was vandalized Friday night, and it was the site of a May rally with “alt-right” racist Richard Spencer, who held a vigil there to protest the statue’s removal.

Several white nationalist groups are planning another rally for Aug. 12.