City leaders in Dayton, Ohio, announced plans Wednesday to keep a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan from holding a military-style rally over Memorial Day weekend.
Dayton’s mayor and law director said at a press conference that the city would file an injunction in advance of the Honorable Sacred Knights of Indiana rallying in Ohio’s sixth-largest city this spring.
“Recognizing that there are legitimate public safety concerns about this rally, the City Commission and I directed the city’s law department to take appropriate legal action to ensure that our citizens remain safe,” said Mayor Nan Whaley, a Democrat elected in 2013.
“We will not allow our city to be threatened by this group or their message of hate,” Ms. Whaley said.
The Honorable Sacred Knights of Indiana was granted a permit last month by Montgomery County to hold a rally at Dayton’s Courthouse Square on the afternoon of May 25, notwithstanding safety concerns that culminated in city leaders asking the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas to intervene.
Dayton is not asking the court to keep the rally from happening, however, said Barbara Doseck, the city’s law director. Addressing reporters alongside the mayor Wednesday Ms. Doseck said the city is seeking an order meant prevent the event from escalating into violence.
“Our injunction does not request that the court prohibit the Honorable Sacred Knights from expressing their viewpoint nor are we attempting to hinder their Second Amendment rights,” she said. “Our injunction merely requests that the court ensure the Honorable Sacred Knights do not conduct a military-like rally or cause a public nuisance in downtown Dayton.
“We have a duty to protect the residents of Dayton and to ensure that this rally is held without violence,” Ms. Doseck said. “The city believes that this can only be accomplished by the Honorable Sacred Knights agreeing that they will not create or be a public nuisance, nor conduct any military-like activities within the city of Dayton.”
On social media, a Facebook page associated with the Klan group posted that its members reached an agreement with Dayton’s attorney Tuesday.
“We agreed to not to wear tactical gear, which we don’t, not to bring long guns or assault rifles, and not to bring flame throwers, which we don’t,” the Facebook post said.
“Some of our members will be armed” with sidearms and have concealed carry permits, the post said.
City officials intend to have the Montgomery County Court declare that the Klan group would be in violation of Ohio law if its members act in a paramilitary fashion because the Ohio Constitution requires militias to be under state authority, The Dayton Daily News reported
The Honorable Sacred Knights made national headlines last year when hardly a dozen members staged a “Ku Klux Kookout” over Labor Day weekend in Madison, Indiana. More recently, a YouTube channel connected to the group shared a video in January of several members conducting a cross-burning while chanting in support of the “white race.”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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