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| Police pepper spray, arrest activists as KKK rally meets rival protest in Charlottesville (VIDEOS) | |
| (about 11 hours later) | |
| Twenty-three people have been detained in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Black Lives Matter supporters and members of a Ku Klux Klan group engaged in a public standoff. | |
| The dual protest came after the city council decided to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E Lee from a park and rename the area ‘Emancipation Park’. The monument has been on the site since the 1920s. | |
| Furious members of KKK group the Loyal White Knights turned out to Charlottesville’s Justice Park to protest the move. | |
| “[On] July 8th in Virginia we will make a stand for our southern history. They are trying to erase whites and our great culture right out of the history books,” a statement on the group’s website reads. | “[On] July 8th in Virginia we will make a stand for our southern history. They are trying to erase whites and our great culture right out of the history books,” a statement on the group’s website reads. |
| In response, members of Black Lives Matter movement and the Charlottesville Showing Up for Racial Justice group gathered in the same park to oppose their message. | |
| A spokesperson for the city of Charlottesville confirmed to RT.com that 23 people were arrested at the event. Of the estimated 1,000-strong attendance, around 50 were KKK members, the spokesperson added. | |
| Earlier, RT reporter Alexander Rubinstein said at least six people were detained by police officers at the standoff. | |
| Footage from the rally shows Klan members giving white power salutes while supporters of the counter demo chant “Black Lives Matter.” | Footage from the rally shows Klan members giving white power salutes while supporters of the counter demo chant “Black Lives Matter.” |
| The Loyal White Knights say they “do not hate any group of people” but do hate homosexuality and “race-mixing.” | The Loyal White Knights say they “do not hate any group of people” but do hate homosexuality and “race-mixing.” |
| “We do hate some things that certain groups are doing to our race and our nation,” the website reads. “We hate drugs, homosexuality, abortion and race-mixing, because these things go against God’s law and they are destroying all white nations.” | “We do hate some things that certain groups are doing to our race and our nation,” the website reads. “We hate drugs, homosexuality, abortion and race-mixing, because these things go against God’s law and they are destroying all white nations.” |
| Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer had urged people not to take notice of the Loyal White Knight’s “putrid bait”. | Charlottesville mayor Michael Signer had urged people not to take notice of the Loyal White Knight’s “putrid bait”. |
| “They only thing they seem to want is division and confrontation and a twisted kind of celebrity,” he said. | “They only thing they seem to want is division and confrontation and a twisted kind of celebrity,” he said. |