Day 80

Stone Mountain is both a city in Georgia, a state park, and a natural quartz monzonite dome (it's big, but "mountain" is a bit of a stretch).  It's also the birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan and the world's largest Confederate memorial.  All three - the so-called "mountain," the park, and the city, were closed today as police prepared for a clash between white-supremacist groups and BLM, Antifa and other protesters.

A group called “Defending Stone Mountain” announced plans to march to the park with other groups, asking participants to show up with Confederate and American flags. Only one group actually applied for a protest permit, a white supremacist group called the “3 Percenters” out of Alabama, and that permit was denied because of violence associated with past protests. Despite this, they announced they were still coming anyway. 

DeKalb Emergency Management Agency released a statement on behalf of the City of Stone Mountain, saying, “The City of Stone Mountain is anticipating and preparing for 2 opposing groups of protesters whose intentions are to demonstrate at Stone Mountain Park. Stone Mountain Park has made the decision to close the Park on this Saturday the 15th of August. While the city have little information on what to expect during this time, out of the abundance of caution we are asking the General Public to avoid the City of Stone Mountain on Saturday August 15th beginning at 4:00am to 12:00 midnight.”

The protesters came face to face in downtown Stone Mountain and nearby, but not in the park or at the mountain itself.  Right now, even as I write this, protesters are chanting “Go home, racists, go home!” and "No Trump. no KKK, no racist USA!" Both sides were armed, some with assault rifles. Confederate flags were burned, and there was some pushing and shoving, but serious violence was avoided.

Police dispersed the crowds by about 2:00 p.m., and some rain at 3:00 p.m. quenched the last of the protests.  The picture above is a screen shot from a live feed taken at around 11:30 this morning (can you spot Santa Claus in the picture?). Unsurprisingly, some of the KKK white nationalists are also waving Trump flags and wearing MAGA hats.

I'm not saying are Trump supporters are racist, but I am saying that all racists are Trump supporters.