Kkk Stirs Hatred Of Racism Protesters Toss Debris At Klan, Raising Tensions In Pittsburgh
After the high-profile death of a black motorist and a federal probe into police brutality, the last thing Pittsburgh needed was the Ku Klux Klan.
But that’s what the city got Saturday as 47 Klan members and neo-Nazis spoke before a few thousand protesters who chanted and threw debris from a parking lot.
“I’ve never felt such a revulsion to anything,” said Mayor Tom Murphy after the rally that a federal judge forced him to allow. “What we saw here today was the very best and the very worst of America.”
At least 1,000 people held a peaceful rally five blocks away to avoid giving the Klan an audience.
“The Klan draws on fear and prejudice and the insecurities people feel,” said Bishop Alden Hathaway, of the Episcopal Diocese in Pittsburgh. “In our caring for one another, there is a remedy for this.”
Hundreds of police in full riot gear and a chain-link fence kept protesters in a parking lot while Klan members spoke at the City-County Building across the street.
“Officers could see people in the lot actually tearing up pieces of asphalt to have something to throw,” said Police Chief Robert McNeilly.
Three people were arrested for disorderly conduct, he said. Four people had minor injuries.
Klan members walked onto the steps mostly wearing white or black hooded robes and raised their hands in a Nazi salute. Most of the crowd saluted back with their fists and an obscene gesture, chanting “KKK, stay away.”
Race has been a hot issue in Pittsburgh since the death of Jonny Gammage, the black cousin of former Pittsburgh Steeler Ray Seals who suffocated in October 1995 in a fight with white suburban police during a traffic stop.
One of the officers was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter in November, prompting a call for a boycott of white-owned downtown businesses. Two other officers were charged but their case ended in a mistrial. A class-action lawsuit accuses city police of a pattern of brutality, especially against blacks.