Illinois Town Finds A Way Out Of Klan March

The Ku Klux Klan won’t rally as planned Saturday in a Chicago suburb in exchange for town officials making sure Klan literature goes to area homes.

The town of Cicero found an anonymous donor willing to give $10,000 to pay for distribution of Klan literature, Betty Loren-Maltese, president of the town of Cicero said Wednesday.

That will avoid a potentially bloody clash, town and Klan officials said.

The KKK agreed not to hold the demonstration “because of the rapidly escalating potential for violence,” Loren-Maltese said in a press release. “We jointly agreed that the best way to avoid any serious injuries to Cicero residents or demonstration attendees was to cancel the event.”

Chicago street gangs and activists including the Jewish Defense League were rumored to be heading to Cicero looking for a fight.

Defense League leader Irv Rubin has said he would travel to Cicero to try to confront the Klan, as he has promised to do during an Aryan march planned for Coeur d’Alene.

Klan officials also agreed to call off the rally after learning that a suspended Cicero police lieutenant “conspired to have the Klan demonstrate in Cicero with the purpose of creating disorder prior to the March 17 primary election,” the press release said.

“It became clear that the purpose of the demonstration was not primarily to promote the political views of our organization, but for some disgruntled Cicero police officers to further a grudge against their employer,” said KKK Imperial Wizard Jeffery L. Berry.

The officers involved will be charged, Loren-Maltese said.

, DataTimes