The Standard Journal

Georgia panel says no to white supremacis­t rally at Stone Mountain

- By Chris Joyner The Atlanta Journal-Constituti­on

ATLANTA — White supremacis­ts — including a Cedartown man -had planned on capitalizi­ng on the internatio­nal attention drawn to Atlanta during Super Bowl LIII to stage a rally at Stone Mountain next February, but the state body that oversees the park said no.

In a Nov. 7 letter, the Stone Mountain Memorial Associatio­n denied a permit to “Rock Stone Mountain II” organizers Greg Calhoun and John Estes citing a “clear and present danger” to public safety. Calhoun and Estes were among those behind the original Rock Stone Mountain, a 2016 “white power” rally that drew a handful of Confederat­e flag-waving white supremacis­ts and hundreds of counterpro­testers who clashed with police for hours, eventually shutting down the park.

“Based on the previous violent event held by your organizati­on on April 23, 2016, as well as your acknowledg­ement of potential violence in the permit applicatio­n comments, the Stone Mountain Park Department of Public Safety does not have the available resources to protect not only the members of your organizati­on but the Park employees and general public,” Associatio­n CEO Bill Stephens wrote.

News of the park’s decision coincides with the annual release of the FBI’s hate crime statistics, which show a 17 percent increase in bias crimes in 2017 over the prior year. The new report tallied more than 7,000 hate crimes, more than half of which involved racial prejudice. It was the third straight year of increases in bias crimes, the FBI reported.

In their applicatio­n, Calhoun and Estes described the event as a “non partisan gathering . to call attention to the efforts of the extreme left and Communists to remove history and monuments of the American people. This includes the NAACP seeking to remove the Stone Mountain carving.”

Calhoun is a Cedartown resident and self-admitted member of the Ku Klux Klan. Estes is a white supremacis­t with a history of arrests and imprisonme­nt for offenses ranging from shopliftin­g to burglary to stalking. Both men have been involved in protests at Stone Mountain since the 2015 massacre of black church members in Charleston by a white supremacis­t put the Confederat­e flag and memorials in the cultural cross hairs.

In posts on the internet, the organizers of the rally make their racist beliefs clear. To join a closed group for rally organizers on social media platform MeWe, applicants must answer whether they are “interested in securing the existence of Our People and a future for White children?” The question echoes a slogan known as the “14 words,” attributed to violent white supremacis­t David Lane.

Stone Mountain was the scene of a series of protests from August 2015 through April 2016 which became both smaller over time and more radical. The first Rock Stone Mountain in 2016 was the culminatin­g event.

That rally was organized explicitly as a white power event, paired with a march that same day in Rome organized by the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement.

But while hundreds of supporters had signed up to attend, only a handful actually made it to the park. Instead, the rally was inundated with counterpro­testers, including civil rights organizati­ons, Christian peace activists, and masked anti-fascists groups, popularly known as “antifa.”

The latter group openly clashed with police who formed a cordon to keep the sides separated, throwing rocks and setting off fireworks. Rather than posing before the park’s iconic carving, the white supremacis­ts were corralled in a distant parking lot for their protection.

Tensions were so high park officials closed the park to tourists for much of the day.

That experience apparently was in mind when Calhoun and Estes applied for a permit. In an attached sheet, the pair asked that the starting and ending times for their planned rally be “concealed until the day of the event in order to avoid lawless attempts to block traffic by Antifa and other groups.”

Stone Mountain associatio­n spokesman John Bankhead declined to comment on the event, saying the permit denial letter spoke for itself. Calhoun and Estes did not return calls seeking comment and as of Tuesday they had made no comment about the denial on any of their social media pages.

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