Ku Klux Klan group gets Gettysburg battlefield permit

[Jazzy]

A Maryland Ku Klux Klan group has been granted a permit to hold a rally at a renowned Civil War battlefield, US authorities have said.

The white supremacist group will hold the event on 5 October at the site of the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.

Park officials said US freedom of speech rules required them to make the site available to the group.

As many as 50,000 soldiers were killed or wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg.

The battlefield, named for the small town nearby, is also known as the site of the Gettysburg Address, a short speech by President Abraham Lincoln that became one of the most celebrated moments of American oratory.

At the dedication of a cemetery there the following November, Lincoln envisioned "a new birth of freedom" for America out of the ashes of the war between the southern slave-holding states and the northern free states.

The Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist group established in the aftermath of the conflict, is known for its violent past and white-hooded ceremonial costume.

Richard Preston, leader of the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, was quoted by a local newspaper as saying his group was a "white separatist" organisation dedicated to throwing US President Barack Obama, who is black, out of office and to advocating stricter immigration laws.

"This is about America for Americans," Mr Preston said. "The only thing we want is our country back."

Source

Disgusting cowards hiding behind their white-hooded ceremonial costumes.

 

[DrLeftover]

While I disagree with 'almost' everything the Klan stands for, and, traditionally, they "don't like" people like me anyway, I do have one thing to say about this:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html


If those words are to mean anything, they have the right to do their thing on public property.

The rest of us don't have to like it, but I can't find the clause that says we have to in the Bill of Rights.

 

[Nebulous's iconNebulous]

Park officials said US freedom of speech rules required them to make the site available to the group.

Yeah, sure, sounds like BS to me. They don't have to grant the KKK a permit.

 

[DrLeftover]

Question sir.

If the permit was denied, whose side would the ACLU be on in the resulting lawsuit?

 

[JetWing34]

The KKK is not a helpful organization, and should be disbanded. You can't have extreme white-hooded activists violate African American rights. Absolutely stupid.

 

[DrLeftover]

The KKK is not a helpful organization, and should be disbanded. You can't have extreme white-hooded activists violate African American rights. Absolutely stupid.

Would you make the same statement about the Black Panthers?