The KKK’s bogus journey to Anaheim.

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Grand Dragon Quigg and unnamed Antifa struggle over flag/weapon. Picture from LA Times.

Grand Dragon Quigg and unnamed Antifa struggle over flag/weapon. Picture from LA Times.

Will Quigg, Grand Dragon of the West Coast KKK, had a really rough week.   First off he got all butt-hurt by the snarky Weekly referring to his retrograde gang as “Klukkers,” and cancelled his promised cover-story interview with Gustavo.  Then, last Saturday, he and his little contingent really got the shit kicked out of them by angry “Antifa” [anti-fascist] protesters, and had to crawl away in defeat.  While the responsible less-than-half of me decries unprovoked violence and cherishes the first amendment right to whatever vile speech you have bubbling up inside you, I couldn’t help but think “Now they know how civil rights workers visiting Alabama in the 60’s felt” and “He’s lucky he didn’t end up like John Lewis or, worse, Reverend James Reeb.”

This and most other photos below from Heather Davini Bouchard's collection.

This and most other photos from Heather Davini Bouchard’s collection; click for larger view.

Ridiculous, yeah, comparing klukkers to civil rights pioneers, but that’s how these supremely aggrieved misfits see themselves.  To only a more exaggerated degree than a VAST chunk of white “Christian” men, they firmly believe that THEY are the big Victims in modern America.  So, like the inveterate dipshits they are, they carry on the banner of a murderous, torturing paramilitary group founded to terrorize the minorities it considered a threat at the time – mostly black folks, Jews, and their sympathizers – a group that briefly held sway in Anaheim a century ago.  And they thought it was a swell idea to revisit their old stomping ground which is now majority-minority.  What did they expect if not a beat-down?

Quigg hurtin', center. Stabby Klukker Charles Donner at right.

Quigg hurtin’, center. Stabby klukker Chuck Donner at right.

Later, after warding off attackers with the sharp end of an American flag and having his life saved by a Jewish counterprotester,  Quigg stumbled around Pearson Park with his ribs kicked in, and groaned his intentions to whoever made this video

“This is a White Christian nation, and we get all these Illegal Aliens over here, sellin’ drugs, gettin’ on welfare, havin’ more babies to get more money, then sendin’ that money back to Mexico, and not puttin’ it back into the US economy.”

Well, sounds pretty close to the “message” of Republican presidential frontrunner Donald J Drumpf – what’s the need for getting all paramilitary about it, especially if you’re not gonna sport those wicked hoods and capes?  Quigg went on to opine that whites are NOT better than blacks or latinos, “just different;” decreed that legal immigration is fine, and denied having anything to do with David Duke.  (He also told Brian Levin, the Jewish professor who saved him from a worse beating, that Hitler was a civil rights hero and the Holocaust never happened.)

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Who WERE these out-of-town Antifas?

Who WERE these out-of-town Antifas?

Two days later (last night) OC’s Sob Sister Brigade, led by Human Relations’ Rusty Kennedy and called to arms with a badly spelled press release, held a “Peace Walk and Community Candlelight Vigil” where they would “take a stand against hate in Anaheim” and “denounce KKK violence.”  Religious leaders, politicians of both parties, OCCORD figures, Anaheim police brass, and dozens of nice folks who recoil at unpleasantness – in short everyone who WASN’T there when the Klan was – gathered to pray, preach, and sing “We Shall Overcome.”  Gabriel San Roman paints a memorable portrait of these pillars of the community drowning out the real protesters, the young locals forbidden from speaking because “Now is not the time.”

Donner contemplating whether his knife can take out a fourth victim.

Donner contemplating whether his knife can take out a fourth victim.

But, I hate to point out one little problem – the message of last night’s march didn’t really make any sense.  To call this “KKK violence” is a real over-simplification.  I don’t mean to defend the Klan at all when I point out that it was the anti-racist protesters who initiated the fisticuffs, and were kicking Klan ass from the moment they got out of their SUV, until one Klukker named Chuck Donner pulled out a knife and stabbed three of them and the cops finally showed up – and Donner was judged to have acted in self-defense, and released after a day.  Something’s just wrong when the basic message of a march bears little relation to the actual events that precipitated it.

Ugh. Donner got the big guy.

Ugh. Donner got the big guy.

Who were these Antifas anyway?  Of the seven arrested for assault with a deadly weapon or “elder abuse,” only one came from Anaheim – black 20-year old Marquis Turner, who appears to be innocent and can be seen on video trying to separate combatants.  The rest all came over from LA County to fight the Klan.  (UPDATE – As I write on Tuesday night, all but three of the arrested Antifas have now been released, but may be re-arrested.)

Still, wait – Klansman Donner was allowed a self-defense justification for stabbing three protesters, putting one – Armando Campos – into critical condition (he’s now had two surgeries, and one of the nerves going to his heart was severed.)  These Antifa protesters feel that what they did was also in self-defense, given the very dangerous nature of the Klan’s “speech.”  As Damion Ramirez wrote today:

11 davini“Violence is the ultimate expression of hopelessness. When there is no hope left, the primal solution becomes one of two options, fight or flight. The historical violence of a group like the KKK, the fact that they have shed blood in this country in the name of hate, does not qualify their philosophy as free speech. It is literally terrorism. What happened to our comrades in Anaheim (founded, funded and governed by the KKK til the people took their baby away), when confronted with the reality of a racial hate group setting up shop in the park they call home, could have only ended one of two ways. Only one of them was honorable. The honorable reaction to terror is resistance, violent or non-violent. Honor and the law aren’t always on the same side.”

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Accused assailant Marquis Turner, who witnesses say was actually pulling combatants apart and trying to keep the peace.

Accused assailant Marquis Turner, who witnesses say was actually pulling combatants apart and trying to keep the peace.

The real screw-ups Saturday were the Anaheim police.  They knew this rally was going to happen.  Quigg had asked for security, they told him they’d have to pay for that, and he declined.  But the police’s job is to keep the peace.  The Klan was variously expected at 10, at 10:30, or at 1:30;  they ended up driving up around 11:30.  But in any case the police claim that they had undercover officers there all along.  How did it take them so long to stop the mayhem?  If it had been a planned rally against police violence, as happens so often in that town, they would have had snipers on the roof, swat teams at the ready. 

And NO, Cunningham, when we complain that the police are not doing their job that DOESN’T contradict our criticism of their militarization, their profiling, their trigger-happiness, and their secrecy.

Whoops - ELDER ABUSE = $50,000 bail!

Whoops – ELDER ABUSE = $50,000 bail!

I just have to add, it sure must have felt great – especially if you’re a black guy – a black guy whose great-grandparents may very well have been lynched, burned, beaten, terrorized, their leaders assassinated, their attempts to vote quashed, by the KKK and the white supremacist establishment it helped prop up for a century – it sure must have felt great to BEAT UP A KLANSMAN.

 

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13 davini blood

About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist/composer in Orange County, and official political troubadour of Anaheim and most other OC towns. Regularly makes solo performances, sometimes with his savage-jazz band The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.