KKK, protesters face off; 3 stabbed

LOS ANGELES — Three people were stabbed Saturday, one critically, after a small group of Ku Klux Klan members staging an anti-immigrant rally in Southern California clashed with a larger gathering of counter-protesters, police said.

The violence broke out shortly after noon in Anaheim’s Pearson Park. About 30 anti-Klan protesters showed up before the rally, Anaheim police Sgt. Daron Wyatt said. The Klan members were attacked as they arrived.

One Klansman stabbed a counter-protester with the decorative end of a flagpole, Wyatt said. That stabbing set off a brawl in which Klan members and protesters fought across a city block.

One Anaheim police sergeant said he saw another Klan member with a knife in his hand and a protester bleeding nearby, Wyatt said. The sergeant took the KKK member into custody.

In total, 13 people were detained; six Klan members in connection with three stabbings and seven protesters suspected of assaulting KKK members.