Article in UK newspaper demands a local response ...

[Fred ONeill]

Sunday, June 8, 2014 an article appeared in The London Daily Mail about an April 26 Ku Klux Klan rally (+ cross-burning and alleged "combat training for armed resistance &quot in Mountwood Park near Parkersburg ... Here is the link - http://tinyurl.com/ptrlq8a ... So where was our local media while this was happening and why do we have to read about it in a British newspaper? The Marietta Times just got around to mentioning the April rally in today's (June 10) paper! How does this fully illustrated article written by someone named "Liam Miller of Parkersburg" make more reasonable Appalachian citizens look in the eyes of the nation and the world? We no sooner get done dealing with a slanderous depiction of Marietta, Ohio in the right-wing NYC publication , The City Journal when THIS hate-filled event is put into the spotlight ... If the good people of Wood County don't want to be portrayed as something out of the film "Deliverance" they might want to tell their County Commissioners, Board Members at Mountwood Park, AND Wood County Sheriff Ken Merritt that they are not too pleased with this kind of recognition ... FYI - A News-Sentinel article from February 1, 2013 quoted Sheriff Merritt as signing an "oath" saying that he would "refuse to enforce any federal laws" banning or regulating assault-rifles ... In today's Times article, Merritt says that he is okay with Klan members toting guns in a public park ... The UK Daily Mail article also contains a bizarre "form" that children and their parents can sign to join the "Kid Knights Klub"! What's up with this???? Comedy writers at SNL or Stephen Colbert couldn't make up crap like this! ~ Fred O'Neill, Marietta, Ohio

[Purrfessor]

1. There were flyers around the same time...

announcing a Klan rally in Gallipolis City Park. A lot of angry people discussed it on Topix, but I never heard whether it was held or not.

[Fred ONeill]

2. There have been other recent indications of Klan activity ...

Sometime after the MLK holiday in January, 2014, some really blatant racist comments were posted in The Marietta Times and The Parkersburg News-Sentinel by someone calling himself "Buckeye Brutus" who claimed to be a "neighborhood watch" person saying that he (along with his alleged buddies in local law-enforcement) had been nightly patrolling parts of Parkersburg to "keep out undesirable elements". The Times finally pulled the plug on comments (after the racist troll used 8 different pseudonyms to post his hate-filled junk). There seems to be an uptick of this sort of activity resulting from incendiary talk on local right-wing radio (especially Parkersburg-Marietta WLTP 910) in the wake of the Cliven Bundy stuff in Nevada and Utah ... Do we have to start worrying that something like what happened in Las Vegas last week will happen around here? Wood County Sheriff Ken Merritt (an admitted "Oath-keeper) should be questioned further about his possible role in allowing activity to proliferate that poses a possible threat to the mostly sane and peaceful residents here ...

[theHandpuppet]

3. Shocking and outrageous

It sounds to me like local law enforcement is in collusion with these racist madmen. I suspect they knew there would be a public outcry if the information about this "gathering" was publicized beforehand and were afraid of a confrontation. Cowards! There definitely needs to be an investigation of this whole sordid affair. I would also send as much information as you have to the Southern Poverty Law Center at http://www.splcenter.org/

I agree that the whole Bundy affair has emboldened the extremists, fascists and racists. I fear where this may lead, I truly do.

And the citizenry should be outraged. How in the hell something like this should take place in their public park (Cross burning and combat training with armed men?? What the f*ck??!!)

[theHandpuppet]

4. You might also want to contact the Anti-Defamation League

http://www.adl.org/combating-hate/law-enforcement/c/upcoming-extremist-related.html

[Fred ONeill]

5. Here's the SPLC report on a recent British Documentary ...

... that covered the April 26 Klan rally in Parkersburg's Mountwood Park ... https://www.splcenter.org/blog/2014/06/13/west-virginia-klan-leader-claims-returning-military-will-help-them-train-for-the-upcoming-battle/ ... There was absolutely no mention of this in the local media until June 10th (although extremely toxic posts turned up in The Marietta Times back in February from some local blowhard Klucker calling himself "Buckeye Brutus" who bragged about his "night-riding" activities with local cops). Let's not have any silliness about the "free speech rights" of these dangerous nitwits. They are serious about armed insurrection. They issue thinly-veiled threats toward minorities. They corrupt their own children. They used a popular public facility for their crummy gathering, and they MAY have been supported by local law-enforcement officers like "Oath-keeper" Wood county Sheriff Ken Merritt (who has, in the past, been investigated for corruption) ... "Free speech does not mean that one has a right to falsely shout 'fire!' in a crowded theater." ~ Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

[theHandpuppet]

6. You just know they've got to have allies in the right places

Otherwise these bigoted cowards wouldn't have gotten away with this crap without the public knowing beforehand. They're like cockroaches -- the minute you turn the light on them, they scatter and hide.

I'm going to post that link to General Discussion as this story deserves a wider audience.