Reply #37: From what I've read....

[DoNotRefill]

they basically sent challenges to the Klan, asking them to come out.

This wasn't the first incident between these two groups. Apparently, a few weeks before the shooting, the CWP had gone to the town the Klan group was from during a Klan protest there, and publicly burned a Confederate Flag.

The sites that seem to be affiliated with the CWP that I've read don't say if they were armed or not. Of course, they have an interest in playing down the fact that they were armed and shot back. Multiple newspaper reports say they were, and that shots were exchanged, and I recall seeing at least one African-American shooting at the Klansmen on the video. Unless the Klan in NC has changed their recruitment standards, the fact that he was African-American pretty conclusively rules out his being a Klansman. I don't think that the Nazis have become an Equal Opportunity group, either.

It'd be one thing if the CWP folks were all in fact "peaceniks" who were set upon by the Klansmen without warning or provocation. Everything I've read indicates that this was NOT the case, that the CWP folks were a militant group, were looking for a fight with the Klan, taunted the Klan, and got their asses kicked for their trouble. If you go out deliberately trying to piss off the uncaged tiger, you shouldn't be surprised when the tiger turns around and bites you.