Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim erupts in violence.

ANAHEIM, CALIF. — Five Ku Klux Klan members who were arrested at a violent melee in an Anaheim park were released from jail after a video showed they were acting in self-defense, police said Sunday, Feb. 28.

The four men and one woman had been held on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly stabbing three people who were demonstrating against the white supremacist group, according to a statement from the Anaheim Police Department.

Police released the five after video and other evidence appeared to exonerate them.

“The totality of the evidence, including videos, still pictures, and interviews, paints a pretty clear picture as to who the aggressors were,” Anaheim police Sgt. Daron Wyatt said. “It does appear to be self-defense and defense of another.”

A final decision on whether to file charges will be made by Orange County prosecutors. Seven anti-KKK protesters also were arrested during the brawl in Pearson Park and remain in police custody. More than a dozen people gathered Sunday outside Anaheim police headquarters and carried signs demanding the release of the seven, who include one juvenile.

“Some of them are being held on trumped-up charges of elder abuse,” said Debbie Leance, the group’s spokeswoman. a high school teacher from Riverside. “We’re fighting for all charges to be dropped, but we’re not getting answers.”

A small group of people representing the klan initially announced that it would hold the Saturday rally in the city where the group was once powerful.

Police expected about 20 people to show up at the rally. Hours before the protest was to begin, several dozen anti-KKK protesters had arrived to stage a counter-demonstration.

About noon, several men in black garb with Confederate flag patches arrived in an SUV near the edge of the park. Fighting broke out moments after they got out of the car. Some of the protesters could be seen kicking a man whose shirt read “Grand Dragon.”

At some point, an anti-KKK protester collapsed on the ground bleeding, crying that he had been stabbed.

Two other anti-KKK protesters were also stabbed during the melee — one with a knife and the other with an unidentified weapon, Wyatt said.

The three stabbing victims were hospitalized in stable condition, police said.

Witnesses said the klansmen used the point of a flagpole as a weapon while fighting with protesters.

As he was escorted in handcuffs by police, one klansman told the officer that he “stabbed (a man) in self-defense.”

Anaheim city officials have defended the police’s handling of the melee.

Source: Los Angeles Times