Here's some headlines and briefs from the local paper and some events from the weeks leading up to the big hoodoo...
Dec, 2000...South Bend
distant early warning
Dec 2: The Outlaw Hammerskins of South Bend cause problems at Black Cat's, a local all-ages punk hang out. The police are called. The club is threatened with closure, and the clubgoers are threatened with arrest. The skins? They're told to go home and behave.
Dec 9: The ARA fund raiser planned for this night is cancelled amid rumors of a violent strike by those same Hammerskins.
Dec 9: That same night, a National Knights hold their annual "KKK Christmas Party" at their compound in Osceola.
March 27...Osceola
100 residents and an FBI guy
100 residents of Osceola gathered at the Beech Road Church of the Brethern and were told that the Klan seems to be operating within the limits of the law, if just barely.
Also present at the meeting were members of the St Joe and Elkhart county police depts, the St Joe county prosecutor's office and the FBI.
April 4...South Bend Tribune
first info hits the streets
The South Bend Tribune ran a two paragraph
blurb about the Klan's attempt to gain a parade permit for Cinco de Mayo.
April 5...South Bend
first response hits the airwaves
South Bend ARA e-mails the news department at the local NPR radio station, WVPE 88.1fm, to inform them of the impending klan rally, and of the impending counter-rally. There is brief coverage on WVPE over the next few days. The rest of the, however, local media says and does nothing for approximately the next 3 weeks.
April 14...Osceola
a Ku Klux Birthday party
The Klan burned a 20' swastika and a 30' cross and had a little party in honor of their big billy-badass leader, the esteemed Reverend Ray Loy, Imperial Lizard of the National Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. These guys ran around and listened to some white power music, but the only thing they were shooting off that night were their mouths.
The Elkhart PD maintained a vigilant presence around the compound that night, cruising up and down the road to let the Klan know that they were being watched. In an in-your-face show of force, the police proceeded to pull over every car that left the compound. The names of the driver and license numbers were recorded, and the police stayed throughout the night.
The police made sure to not cross the line of illegal search and siezure, and did not harrass the Klan illegally. They, however, did let the Klan know that their April 14th "celebration" would not be allowed to get out of hand the way other parties had in the past.
week of April 16...Clay Twp.
Hitler's birthday looming in the distance
A report is made to ARA South Bend of an antagonistic cross-burning at a Clay Township home.
Adolph Hitler's birthday brought out a grand old Indiana tradition - cross-burning.
this story, while believable, was unverified, although it came in from several different sources
April 19 & 20...South Bend
Anniversary of Columbine, Waco, and Hitler's birthday
South Bend Community School Corporation puts its teachers and security staff on extra alert for the presence of guns, explosives, etc. In the light of the April 19th violence in America over the last couple of years, the SBPD also goes on extra alert.
NOTHING HAPPENS...
Ironic that this was also the day the Ray Loy was served with a letter that informed him that his little Klan campground is in violation of several zoning laws.
Included in the violations are the presence of the firing range at the compound for a variety of reasons. Other violations include the lack of zoning for clubs and lodges in a residential district, and the size and positioning of the sign in the front yard.
"Therefore," said St Joe County Building Commissioner Don Fozo, "it will be necessary to cease and desist all operations of the club and/or lodge and the firing range immediately, and either remove or reduce the size of the sign at this location." If the Klan property is recognized as a church, it will still have to meet parking requirements and commercial building codes that it does not currently meet. He has given the Klan 30 days to rectify things before a re-inspection of the property is done.
Richard Loy is now apparently an expert on law and says that he doesn't think the county has jurisdiction over the privately owned and used firing range, and nobody pays to use it. "If they have an ordinance like that, I will not follow it," he has been quoted as saying, proving how little he actually does know about the law and how it works.
Tue, May 1...South Bend
members of the South Bend Coaltion Against Racism go on the radio
JPQ from South Bend ARA, and Lee from the South Bend Coaltion Against Racism went on the radio to discuss the upcoming Klan rally and ARA South Bend's view on the state of local race relations.
Thanks to WUBU for the forum.
Tuesday, May 1...Michiana Point of View Column
Show Klan it isn't welcome here
"If you feel that white supremacist groups are not a problem for our area, you are terribly mistaken. Racist activity has been growing steadily over the last few years."
This is the quote that ran in a opinion piece written by a local citizen. She argued that nobody had done anything leading up to the time of the rally, and to a very real extent, she was right. There had been plans made by both on-site protesters and off-site demonstrators. However, community leaders on every side, including the police and the Mayor's office had kept silent about the upcoming rally.
The article also includined a brief list of racially motivated incidents that had happened throughout the area over the last handful of months.
"The Southern Poverty Law Center...has identified 25 Indiana white supremacist groups, including the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Goshen and Butler, which were idenified as the most active Klan organizations in America" read another passage in the article.
South Bend ARA feels that this particular article was instrumental in getting the local police and media to acknowledge the severity of the situation. The Klan is not a thing of the past. They are not an organization bent on heritage; they are an organization bent on violence. This letter gave a call to local citizens to do SOMETHING. Many people who read this went on to join us at the on-site protest or joind the other protests around the city.
Tuesday, May 1 through Saturday, May 5...South Bend
concern and support
Sharon received around 25 e-mails in responese to her article in the Tribune. They were all encouraging and congradulatory, except for one. It was from - you guessed it - the Reverend Ray Loy. He ranted and raved and butchered the English language while making absolutely no points or sense.
Thursday, May 3...South Bend Tribune article
Klan turnout dwindling
The SBPD announced that after talks with Klan leaders, he number of Klan marchers expected at the rally had dropped from 40 to 20. Chief Larry Bennet also talked about how the Klan wants to be dropped off several blocks from the rally, and their plans to march to and from the rally site. This planned march, and the Klan's insistence upon it, is what is being blamed by experts for the violence that erupted Saturday.
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