4 stabbed in Ku Klux Klan rally

ANAHEIM—Four people were stabbed on Saturday in a scuffle between members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and counterprotesters near a planned KKK rally in Anaheim, California, police said.

Thirteen people were arrested following the melee, including a Klan member accused of stabbing a counter-protester with a flagpole, said Anaheim Police Sergeant Daron Wyatt. Several counter-protesters were taken into custody after stomping a KKK member on the ground.

Wyatt said the altercation took place as soon as several Klan members arrived at the park about a mile north of Disneyland, for a planned rally there.

“As soon as they got out of their vehicle, immediately they were attacked by counter-protesters and this caused a melee down the block,” he said.

Wyatt said four people were wounded in the ensuing confrontation. The person most seriously wounded was stabbed with a flagpole that had an American eagle finial at the top and taken to a local hospital in critical condition.

Several witnesses said a peaceful counter-protest had been under way for about three hours when the Klansmen arrived in a black SUV.

The vehicle pulled up and three men got out and began to unload signs when the group of about 50 counter-protesters approached them, yelling and throwing sticks, witnesses said.

“Three people were stabbed by the fire hydrant,” said Darren Simpson, 49. “These Klan guys were fighting for their lives.”

The Klan, founded after the abolition of slavery in the US South in the mid-19th century, evolved in recent years into a collection of loosely affiliated or independent groups that shared a political philosophy based on racial separation.