A rally here by the Ku Klux Klan and its supporters to protest the Charlottesville City Council’s decision to remove a statue honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee encountered a loud and angry counterprotest Saturday afternoon. 
 
 Members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, which is based in Pelham, N.C., near the Virginia border, gathered at Justice Park, situated in a quiet, leafy residential neighborhood in downtown Charlottesville. They shouted “white power,” and some wore white robes. 
 
 About 30 Klansmen were escorted to and from the rally by police in riot gear who were out on a hot day to separate the rallygoers and approximately 1,000 counterprotesters who greeted them with jeers. Attempts by Klan leaders to address the crowd were repeatedly drowned out by boos and chants. Some of the Klan members arrived armed, carrying handguns in holsters at their belts. 
 
 [KKK marchers say they will be armed Saturday at Charlottesville rally] 
 
 The rally was held about a block away from Emancipation Park — the renamed Lee Park — where the statue of Lee astride a horse still stands. Charlottesville police reported that vandals had painted messages in green and red paint on the statue overnight. 
 
 A statue of Robert E. Lee collects snow in Lee Park as snow falls on Monday, March 3, 2014 in Charlottesville, Va. (Ryan M. Kelly/AP) 
 
 More than 100 officers from the Virginia State Police, Albemarle County police and University of Virginia police were prepared to assist Charlottesville police in maintaining order. 
 
 After the Klan rally ended, police led several people away in handcuffs after a large group of counterprotesters remained near the vicinity of the park. Police asked those still gathered nearby to disperse. Wearing riot gear and gas masks, the police declared the counterprotesters “an unlawful assembly” and used gas canisters to compel them to leave the area. 
 
 Police said Sunday that 22 people were arrested. Authorities said three people were hospitalized; two for heat related issues and one for an alcohol related issue. 
 
 “I was pleased with the professionalism and commitment of our law enforcement partners as our safety plan was well executed. Officers traveled from near and far to assist the CPD in maintaining law and order during this difficult endeavor,” Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said Sunday. 
 
 “Hundreds of local citizens rose up in a non-violent protest against the hate that was being spewed in Justice Park,” Thomas said in a statement. “When Klan members arrived, the atmosphere quickly became emotionally charged. Several outside groups made it clear they would become confrontational; however, we were prepared for the unrest that occurred near the conclusion of the event which unfortunately resulted in a number of arrests. Order was quickly restored and our community remains safe.” 
 
 Charlottesville, a city of close to 50,000 and home to the prestigious public flagship campus of the University of Virginia, had become increasingly tense as the rally approached. “A CITY ON EDGE” read the front-page headline in the local paper, the Daily Progress, on Saturday. 
 
 [White nationalist Richard Spencer leads torch-bearing protesters defending Lee statue] 
 
 1 of 18 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Photos from the scene of a Ku Klux Klan rally and counterprotest in Charlottesville, Va. View Photos Klansmen were escorted to and from a rally by police in riot gear to protect them from about 1,000 counterprotesters who greeted them with jeers of “shame.” The rally was held to protest the city’s decision this year to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a public park and rename that park. Caption Klansmen arriving and departing from the rally were escorted by police in riot gear to protect them from about 1,000 counterprotesters, who greeted them with jeers of “Shame!” The rally was held to protest the city’s decision this year to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a public park and rename that park. July 8, 2017 Members of the Ku Klux Klan arrive for a rally in Charlottesville, Va., to protest the planned removal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
 
 City leaders organized diversionary events elsewhere in the city and encouraged residents and visitors not to confront the KKK members directly. While many took that advice, others wanted to make sure the rally participants heard their voices. 
 
 “It is important for me to be here because the Klan was ignored in the 1920s, and they metastasized,” said Jalane Schmidt, a professor at the University of Virginia who has been among those leading the call for the Lee statue removal. “They need to know that their ideology is not acceptable.” 
 
 “I teach about slavery and African American history, and it’s important to face the Klan and to face the demons of our collective history and our original sin of slavery. We do it on behalf of our ancestors who were terrorized by them.” 
 
 Though the council voted to remove the statue, a court order has stopped the city from acting on that decision until a hearing next month. Some observers predict a protracted legal battle that would further delay the removal. 
 
 In an editorial last month, city councilwoman Kristin Szakos said the council voted to remove the statue and join a “growing group of cities around the nation that have decided that they no longer want to give pride of place to tributes to the Confederate Lost Cause erected in the early part of the 20th century.” 
 
 [The Ku Klux Klan was dead. The first Hollywood blockbuster revived it.] 
 
 The Klan says the city’s decision to remove the Lee statue is part of a wider effort to get rid of white history. 
 
 “They’re trying to erase the white culture right out of the history books,” Klan member James Moore said Thursday. 
 
 Brandi Fisher, of Ridgeley, W.Va., drove hours to attend the rally. 
 
 “I don’t agree with everything the Klan believes, but I do believe our history should not be taken away,” said Fisher, 41. “Are we going to remove the Washington and Jefferson memorials because they were slave owners?” 
 
 Ezra Israel, 32, who is African American, says the statue should stay up as a reminder of slavery and the people who supported it. 
 
 “It’s hiding history to take it down,” he said as he made his way to the rally. “We need to leave it up so people can see it and see that we were oppressed and we’re still a product of that today.” 
 
 Toung Nguyen, an immigrant from Vietnam who moved to Charlottesville as a child in the early 1980s, said he believes the money that will be spent on removing the statue could be better used improving the local school system. But he says racism has gotten worse in the last couple of years and he understands why many believe the statue needs to go. 
 
 “It’s just disappointing that we still have to deal with this kind of nonsense,” Nguyen said. “Our country feels like it’s going full circle.” 
 
 Charlottesville is already planning for another protest next month. Several white nationalist groups have a permit for an Aug. 12 rally also calling for the council’s decision on the statue to be reversed. 
 
 T. Rees Shapiro contributed to this report. ||||| A group of white nationalists carried torches Saturday night in Charlottesville, Virginia, while protesting the planned removal of Confederate statues in the city — which has provoked anger and frustration from politicians and activists. 
 
 The torch wielders — reported to be several dozen by local paper The Daily Progress — were reacting to a Nov. 28 City Council vote to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Charlottesville's Lee Park, the public space where the protest took place Saturday. 
 
 A court injunction has halted the removal of the statue for six months, but that didn't stop the protesters, led by avowed white nationalist Richard Spencer, from reportedly yelling chants like "We will not be replaced," "Russia is our friend" and "Blood and soil" at the site of the statue. 
 
 Mike Signer, the mayor of Charlottesville, expressed his disgust with Saturday's protest in an interview with ABC News. 
 
 "I think it's horrific," he said of the protests. "We're a city that proudly values our diversity." 
 
 Signer noted that the demonstration coincided with the park's Festival of Cultures event, which was created to celebrate the "cultural and linguistic diversity" of the community. It isn't clear whether the timing was deliberate, he said. 
 
 "It's always a balance about how much oxygen you want to give these 'alt-right' bigots," he said, referring to questions about how to respond to the actions of Spencer and his followers. "It's important to say that these were just tiki torches. Based upon what I'm seeing online, the people involved in this have a juvenile mentality and are beneath our contempt." 
 
 Signer issued a statement about the protests to The Daily Progress saying the protest was "either profoundly ignorant or designed to instill fear in our minority community." 
 
 ABC News on Sunday reached out for comment to the Spencer-run National Policy Institute, a think tank focused on white supremacist issues but did not receive a response. 
 
 Signer said that on Saturday there was an altercation between protesters and counterprotesters and that he expects the police to perform "due diligence" in determining whether evidence exists that a federal hate crime took place, given the racially tinged atmosphere surrounding the incident. 
 
 The Charlottesville Police Department released a statement Sunday saying that officers answered a call about suspicious activity in Lee Park and that the first officer on the scene found "100 to 150 people in the park, many of whom were carrying tiki-style torches." 
 
 As the officer approached the group, he saw several members of the group arguing with a man, the police statement said. People in the group were chanting, and the man was yelling at them "to leave my town," police said. 
 
 The officer ordered everyone to clear the park and called for additional units. As other officers arrived, everyone began to leave the park without incident, and there were no assaults, injuries or damage to the park reported, the police statement said. 
 
 "Extra patrol was conducted for the remainder of the evening, with no additional incidents being reported or observed," the statement said. 
 
 Signer on Sunday sparred with some of Spencer's supporters on Twitter, whom he called "anonymous trolls." He endured anti-Semitic remarks on the social media platform. 
 
 "I'm pretty thick-skinned," the mayor said, "but this is the first time I've encountered something like this." 
 
 John Edwin Mason, a history teacher at the University of Virginia who lives within walking distance of the park, told ABC News that he views the protest as an attempt by newer "American fascists" like Spencer to sync up with more traditional racist groups like the KKK on the issue of preserving Confederate history. 
 
 "Richard Spencer doesn't give a damn about Robert E. Lee," Mason said. "He sees an opportunity here." 
 
 Removing Confederate monuments is part of a trend that gained momentum after a mass shooting at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, when avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine African-Americans at a Bible-study session. 
 
 In the aftermath of the massacre, calls came from both Republicans and Democrats in South Carolina to take down a Confederate battle flag that flew on statehouse grounds in Charleston. 
 
 Mason served as a vice chairman on a blue ribbon commission that has pushed to remove the statues. He is African-American but doesn't view the protests as a targeting black people in Charlottesville. 
 
 He said that the black community in Charlottesville is "relatively small" and that he feels the protesters were responding to the agenda of "white liberals and leftists" who pushed to emphasize diversity in the community. 
 
 Signer proclaimed the city a "capital of resistance" in January, after the inauguration of Donald Trump, and vowed at an event held in downtown Charlottesville to provide assistance to immigrants who need visa help. 
 
 Khizr Khan, the father of a Muslim American soldier who died in combat in Iraq and who gave a widely discussed speech at the Democratic National Convention in July, was among the residents who spoke at the mayor's event. 
 
 "Having fire at night conjures images of the KKK, but it also stirs up images of Nazis," Mason said — referring to images of Nazi storm troopers marching with torches before and during World War II. 
 
 He added that he attends a primarily African-American American church in the city and that he spoke to neighbors who were neither surprised nor scared by the demonstration in Lee Park the night before. 
 
 "Nobody here is intimidated by these jokers," Mason said with a chuckle.
– Between 30 and 50 members of the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan rallied in support of controversial Confederate statues on Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., but the Washington Post reports that their shouts of "white power" were drowned out by more than 1,000 counterprotesters. More than 100 cops in riot gear escorted Klansmen to and from the 45-minute rally, held in protest of the city's plan to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee. Police later declared an "unlawful assembly" when counterprotesters refused to leave, reports the Daily Progress, and used tear gas to make their point; 23 were arrested. "It is important for me to be here because the Klan was ignored in the 1920s, and they metastasized," says a protester. "They need to know that their ideology is not acceptable." (Here's why Charlottesville is the latest flashpoint in alt-right wars.)