The Missouri-based Ku Klux Klan sent a chilling message to protesters in Ferguson saying they will use \u201clethal force\u201d to defend themselves from \u201cterrorists masquerading as \u2018peaceful protesters.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The Traditionalist American Knights of the KKK distributed fliers that state protesters have \u201cawakened a sleeping giant,\u201d and that demonstrators have threatened the lives of law enforcement, the community and their families.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have been warned by the Ku Klux Klan!\u201d the flier reads. \u201cThere will be consequences for your actions against the peaceful, law abiding citizens of Missouri.\u201d<\/p>\n
The distribution of threatening messages via fliers in communities around the nation has been a standing mode of operandi for the KKK.<\/p>\n
Last week, MSNBC\u2019s \u201cAll In\u201d host Chris Hayes invited Frank Ancona, the leader of the KKK chapter in Missouri, to discuss reasons for spreading the fliers around Ferguson.<\/p>\n
On the program, Hayes questioned Ancona on the irony of the group\u2019s mission that claims to fight violence with more violence, saying it appears they are \u201cattempting to bring about the exact same thing\u201d they are against.<\/p>\n
Ancona responds, \u201cNo, actually it\u2019s addressing the people who are making these terroristic threats and letting them know that the people of Missouri have rights too.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also denied the KKK was inciting violence and justified the actions saying, \u201cThere are remedies under the law. The flier, if you read it, it says \u2018defend\u2019, it talks about defense. So, in order to defend yourself, that means you\u2019re being attacked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ancona said he firmly believes that the fliers are making the situation better in St. Louis.<\/p>\n
But Ancona\u2019s appearance on \u201cAll In\u201d\u00a0brought the host an onslaught of criticism from viewers who blamed him for giving the KKK figurehead a platform to share his controversial views.<\/p>\n
The constant and critical responses of the segment prompted Hayes to address viewer concerns in a separate video following the close of the show.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still think it was the right call, in fact I may even feel that *more* strongly than I did (that night). That said, I 100% understand why some people don\u2019t see it that way. We debated and wrestled with whether or not to do it and weighed the pros and cons and ultimately decided there was real news\/journalistic value in putting him on,\u201d Hayes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have booked him to give us \u201chis take\u201d or \u201cweigh in\u201d on what\u2019s going in Ferguson or some other story. We interviewed him because he was actually the person distributing those fliers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Missouri-based Ku Klux Klan sent a chilling message to protesters in Ferguson saying they will use…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":336,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,8,16,14,13,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-civil-protest","category-domestic-violence","category-equal-opportunity","category-featured","category-first-amendment-rights","category-music","category-social-change","wpcat-4-id","wpcat-5-id","wpcat-8-id","wpcat-16-id","wpcat-14-id","wpcat-13-id","wpcat-17-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}