A Ku Klux Klan rally ended in bloodshed Saturday after at least three people were stabbed, one of whom is in critical condition.
At least three people were knifed, two of whom were reported to be counter protesters, at the hate rally in Anaheim, just 2 miles from Disneyland.
Anaheim police said that 13 people were arrested, including 6 Klansman and 7 counter protesters, as a result of the violent scuffle.
Police were notified of the Klan’s rally when an organizer contacted the department after they learned that a counter protest was planned, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Cops were told that the purpose of the protest was that “white lives matter, too.”
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A KKK member wielded an American flag as a weapon Saturday.
Roughly 20 people were expected to be at the white supremacist rally starting at 10 a.m. which was supposed to culminate in a “walking protest” at 1:30 in Anaheim’s Pearson Park, according to a tweet from the police department.
At around 11 a.m., counter protesters arrived to the park in anticipation of the KKK demonstrators and swarmed the Klan members when they got out of their cars.
“As soon as they got out of their vehicle, immediately they were attacked by counter protesters and this caused a melee down the block,” Anaheim Police Sergeant Daron Wyatt said, who added that possibly a fourth person was stabbed during the brawl.
Witnesses saw a group of counter protesters kicking a man on the ground with a shirt that said “Grand Wizard” on it, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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Two counter protesters wrestled with a KKK member.
The Klansman fought back after which a witness saw a counter protester fall to the ground, bleeding, and yelling that he had been stabbed—witnesses said the victim’s assailant used a flag pole to wound him. It was unclear what type of flag was used.
At another point during the free-for-all, Brian Levin, the director of CSU San Bernardino’s Center for the study of hate and extremism, pushed a Klansman out of the way of a group of armed counter protesters.
“How do you feel that a Jewish guy just saved your life?” Levin asked the white supremacist, according to the Los Angeles Times, to which he replied “Thank you.”
The violence in Anaheim came just two days after it was widely publicized that Donald Trump was the preferred candidate of former KKK Grand Wizard, David Duke.
The former Klansman and 1992 presidential hopeful said on his radio program on Thursday that not voting for the GOP front runner would be “treason to your heritage.”
He encouraged his racist followers to “get off your duff” and volunteer for the Trump campaign.
“They’re screaming for volunteers. Go in there, you’re going to meet people who are going to have the same kind of mindset that you have,” Duke said.
The KKK experienced a minor resurgence last year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s report on an overall spike in hate groups in 2015.
May the KKK rise and ride again