Hundreds of counter-protesters demonstrated against an estimated nine attendees of a planned rally by a Ku Klu Klan-affiliated group in Dayton, Ohio on Saturday, CBS affiliate WHIO reported. Dayton Police Chief Richard Biehl told the station he was "very pleased" with security, noting that no one was arrested or injured.

"This clearly was a safety challenge for our city and our community," Biehl said. City officials estimated that the cost of security measures for the event with nine KKK members was $650,000, according to TIME.

The nine members of the Honorable Sacred Knights of Indiana did little talking and when they did try to communicate, counter-protesters made sure they couldn't be heard, WHIO reports. All but one of the Klan members wore masks.

City officials estimated that around 500 to 600 people gathered in the area of Courthouse Square during the rally. News spread nationally earlier this week about the planned KKK rally after the group received a permit last month for the event.

Counter protesters gather en masse to protest against a rally held by the KKK affiliated group Honorable Sacred Knights of Indiana at Courthouse Square on May 25, 2019 in Dayton, Ohio. Matthew Hatcher / Getty Images

More than 200 people attended an NAACP-sponsored "Love" event in downtown Dayton, city officials told WHIO.

Mayor Nan Whaley praised those who attended the counter-event "to celebrate what Dayton is all about."

"We are united against hate," Whaley said. "We are a community that no matter who you love, where you come from or what you believe, you are welcome in Dayton." </s> • A nine-person Ku Klux Klan rally in Dayton, Ohio Saturday was protested by an estimated 600 people.
• No one was injured or arrested. Security for the event cost the city $650,000.
• "This is probably Dayton at its best," Dayton City Commissioner Darryl Fairchild said.

Nine Ku Klux Klan members showed up at a rally in Dayton, Ohio on Saturday.

Their voices were drowned out by an estimated 600 counter-protestors, who drummed so they couldn't be heard and carried signs with messages like "Make racists afraid again," according to the Dayton Daily News.

"There is a great crowd of people down here on Main Street," Dayton City Commissioner Darryl Fairchild told the Daily News. "This is probably Dayton at its best."

The Klan protest was meant to be small in scale, with only 20 people expected to show up. They waved American, KKK, and Confederate flags, and wore masks to disguise themselves.

A shirtless protester is covered in a message reading, "This Jew Will Replace you." Hundreds of counter protesters, including the Nation of Islam, New Black Panthers, and Huey Newton Gun Club, American Indian Movement, and ANTIFA gathered in downtown Dayton, Ohio to protest members of the KKK. Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The scale of the counter-protest was more unexpected. After the Klan obtained a permit to protest months ago, city officials organized Dayton United Against Hate to rival them. A city official told Time that more than 350 police officers were brought in to keep the peace. No one was arrested or injured, a city official told Cleveland.com.

Read more: A high school student in Missouri is being investigated after posting a racist Snapchat threatening to lynch black athletes

The city spent $650,000 on police protection, police said. The KKK members were given a police escort for the day.

"This ugly chapter is over, but it means we have to get back to the real work - making sure that no matter what you look like, where you come from, or who you love, that you can have a great life here in Dayton," Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said on Twitter after the protest.
• An Alabama newspaper editor who called for the KKK to 'ride again' has been replaced by a black woman
• An Alabama newspaper editor called for mass lynchings and for the KKK to return and 'clean out DC'
• A Boston museum publicly apologized after a group of black students on a field trip said they were told, 'No food, no drink, no watermelon' </s> A small group from the KKK-affiliated Honorable Sacred Knights out of Indiana gather for a rally in Dayton, Ohio, May 25, 2019

A small group of Ku Klux Klan members penned in by fencing, surrounded by police and drowned out by hundreds of protesters, held a rally in Ohio with no reported clashes or problems.

The city of Dayton blocked streets with large trucks Saturday and brought in officers from other jurisdictions to keep protesters separated from members of an obscure Klan group called the Honorable Sacred Knights.

The group obtained a permit for the rally months ago. City officials and community leaders organized an effort called Dayton United Against Hate.

The NAACP and other groups gathered in a public park about a mile from Dayton's downtown square where the Klan rally was held.

Dayton police says no one was arrested or injured.

The city urged people to stay away from downtown Saturday. </s> Nine Ku Klux Klan members showed up at a rally in Dayton, Ohio on Saturday.

Their voices were drowned out by an estimated 600 counter-protestors, who drummed so they couldn't be heard and carried signs with messages like "Make racists afraid again," according to the Dayton Daily News.

"There is a great crowd of people down here on Main Street," Dayton City Commissioner Darryl Fairchild told the Daily News. "This is probably Dayton at its best."

The Klan protest was meant to be small in scale, with only 20 people expected to show up. They waved American, KKK, and Confederate flags, and wore masks to disguise themselves.

A shirtless protester is covered in a message reading, "This Jew Will Replace you." Hundreds of counter protesters, including the Nation of Islam, New Black Panthers, and Huey Newton Gun Club, American Indian Movement, and ANTIFA gathered in downtown Dayton, Ohio to protest members of the KKK. Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The scale of the counter-protest was more unexpected. After the Klan obtained a permit to protest months ago, city officials organized Dayton United Against Hate to rival them. A city official told Time that more than 350 police officers were brought in to keep the peace. No one was arrested or injured, a city official told Cleveland.com.

Read more: A high school student in Missouri is being investigated after posting a racist Snapchat threatening to lynch black athletes

The city spent $650,000 on police protection, police said. The KKK members were given a police escort for the day.

"This ugly chapter is over, but it means we have to get back to the real work - making sure that no matter what you look like, where you come from, or who you love, that you can have a great life here in Dayton," Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said on Twitter after the protest.
• An Alabama newspaper editor who called for the KKK to 'ride again' has been replaced by a black woman
• An Alabama newspaper editor called for mass lynchings and for the KKK to return and 'clean out DC'
• A Boston museum publicly apologized after a group of black students on a field trip said they were told, 'No food, no drink, no watermelon' </s> A much-publicized Ku Klux Klan rally planned for Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday only drew nine members of the notoriously racist group — and they were met with a total of 600 counter-protesters ready to drown them out.

The plans for the KKK rally had put the Ohio city on edge and fearful of some of the violent clashes that have taken place in recent months between racist groups and counter-protesters. As Time magazine noted, those fears appeared to be unfounded, as the KKK apparently decided to stay away, with just nine members showing up to take part in the planned rally.

The small group attempted to chant racist slogans, but were drowned out by the hundreds of people who came to meet them. A report from WHIO TV7 noted that the counter-protesters managed to shout down the KKK members every time they tried to speak, essentially thwarting the protest. A Church of God group from Greenville also traveled to Dayton to take part in the counter-protest, singing “Amazing Grace” loudly to drown out the racist group.

Other religious groups also took part in the counter-protest, including a number of Quakers. Some of the counter-protesters wore traditional Black Panther garb, while some had scarves over their faces in adopting the clothing associated with the anti-racist group Antifa.

All but one of the KKK members had their faces covered.

Those who showed up to oppose the KKK had signs telling them that hatred was not welcome in the city. Many local businesses joined in as well, placing signs outside bars and restaurants saying that the racist group was not welcome and that they would not serve members of the KKK.

In all, the counter-protesters were outnumbered by a ratio of roughly 100 to 1. There were roughly 350 police officers called into duty as well, though the group of white supremacists was so small that there were no violent clashes like what was seen in Charlottesville, Virginia, or Portland, Oregon, in recent months.

The large and organized response to the racist group earned praise from some local leaders.

“There is a great crowd of people down here on Main Street,” City Commissioner Darryl Fairchild told WHIO TV7. “This is probably Dayton at its best.”

The KKK rally was not without impact on the city of Dayton, however. City Manager Shelley Dickstein told the Daily News that the rally cost the city roughly $650,000 in increased personnel and security costs. </s> DAYTON, Ohio — A small group of Ku Klux Klan members penned in by fencing, surrounded by police and drowned out by protesters, held a rally in Ohio with no reported clashes or problems.

The city of Dayton blocked streets with large trucks Saturday and brought in officers from other jurisdictions to keep protesters separated from members of an obscure Klan group called the Honorable Sacred Knights.

The group obtained a permit for the rally months ago. City officials and community leaders organized an effort called Dayton United Against Hate.

The NAACP and other groups gathered in a public park about a mile from Dayton’s downtown square where the Klan rally was held.

The city urged people to stay away from downtown Saturday. </s> After Dayton, Ohio became the site of a peaceful protest against a very small Ku Klux Klan rally on Saturday, Mayor Nan Whaley is proud of the way her community came together. There’s only one problem: paying the massive bill required to keep protestors, and KKK demonstrators, safe.

“I’m proud of the city,” Whaley tells TIME. “I think it is frustrating on how expensive it is today to keep people safe.”

Local officials estimate that the city incurred $650,000 in expenses due to the KKK rally. That cost included assembling more than 350 police officers in order to keep the peace, as well as barriers and other materials used to keep the nine KKK-affiliated demonstrators separated from the protestors.

Whaley adds that cost of securing the rally was compounded by the fact that Ohio allows the open-carry of weapons, which exacerbated safety concerns for police and local officials.

“The number of assault rifles was troubling to me,” Whaley says. “This place we live in now [is] where we have to really prepare for really bad scenarios, and that’s really expensive.”

Community members expressed similar sentiments — proud of how their community united against racism and hated on Saturday, but frustrated over the cost that their city incurred in managing the protest.

“The way that the city did it was really awesome, but as a taxpayer of the city I’m extremely aggravated and irritated [at] the fact that our city spent $650,000 on this,” says Dayton resident Jesse Seiber, 25, who put a sign up outside his restaurant that read, “Yo, KKK you’re in the wrong hood.”

“All around on the tallest buildings you had cops with binoculars watching the crowd,” says Seiber. “But as for the crowd itself, it was extremely peaceful.”

Only nine people actually showed up for the KKK rally Saturday, and their chants were drowned out by between 500 and 600 protesters, many from the community, who assembled in Dayton to show their opposition to the hate group’s message. Those protests remained peaceful and progressed without incident, with Dayton police reporting no arrests, no use of force, and no citations.

Whaley says that Dayton is in talks with Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office to help recoup some of Saturday’s costs.

In March, Dayton filed a lawsuit against an Indiana-based KKK-affiliated group that was planning a rally in their city, citing a danger to the community if the group held a paramilitary-style event, according to WCMH Columbus. In May, the two sides reached a settlement that prevented the group from wearing military-style gear or carrying assault rifles, shields, bats, knives or flame throwers. They were, however, permitted to cover their faces and carry certain firearms if they had permits.

Those precautions, along with a minuscule turnout from the group, strong police presence and a unified sentiment in the community may have all contributed to keeping Saturday’s events peaceful.

And because the KKK-affiliated group stuck to the terms of the consent agreement for holding their rally, Whaley says she has been advised the city had no avenue to try to recoup the security costs from the hate group itself.

For some Dayton residents, that the price may have been worth it. “I’d much rather spend money than human lives,” says Dayton bar owner Gus Stathes. “It could have gotten real ugly real fast.” </s> A branch of the Ku Klux Klan—the Honorable Sacred Knights of Madison, Indiana—planned a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday. But when the time came to march, only nine supporters of the group showed up downtown, and they were met by 500 to 600 counterprotesters rallying against racism.

City leaders feared a rerun of the tragic events in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. But this time the anti-racists massively outnumbered the racists in the city of 140,000 in western Ohio. Opponents of the Klan held signs that read: “You Are Not Welcome Here” and “Injustice Anywhere Is a Threat to Justice Everywhere.”

According to Time, one popular sign among local businesses read, “Get your hatin’ out of Dayton”

“This ugly chapter is over, but it means we have to get back to the real work – making sure that no matter what you look like, where you come from, or who you love, that you can have a great life here in Dayton,” Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley tweeted afterwards. </s> One person was killed and 19 were injured in Charlottesville, Virginia, after a car plowed through a group of counter-protesters who were demonstrating against an alt-right and white nationalists rally.

A spokesperson for University of Virginia Hospital told NBC News that 20 patients were admitted to the hospital — 19 injuries and one fatality. Her words confirmed a tweet sent by Charlottesville Mayor Michael Signer that said someone had been killed.

The driver of one vehicle was taken into custody, according to Charlottesville Police.

Described as a group of "anti-racist protesters" by a witness who took video of the crash, the group of marchers were packed close together at the end of a street near the intersection of Fourth Street and Water Street in downtown Charlottesville.

Brennan Gilmore, a 37-year-old who works for a start up, shot the footage and said he heard tires squealing before he saw a gray Dodge Charger build up speed and ram the crowd. It hit a number of people before plowing into the bumper of another car.

"It was very clearly intentional," Gilmore told NBC News. "From the far end of the street it accelerated, slowed down right before the crowd and then slammed on the gas through the crowd sending bodies flying. And then it reversed back into the street dragging bodies and clothes."

People fly into the air as a vehicle drives into a group of protesters demonstrating against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on Aug. 12, 2017. The nationalists were holding the rally to protest plans by the city of Charlottesville to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. There were several hundred protesters marching in a long line when the car drove into a group of them. Ryan M. Kelly / The Daily Progress via AP

The car then backed up and fled the scene.

Different groups of protesters clashed with hundreds of white nationalists, Ku Klux Klan members and neo-Nazis throughout the day ahead of the noon rally, but they began to disperse after Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and police told attendees to depart.

Police reported that eight were injured in those scuffles and one person was arrested.

President Donald Trump called the series of events terrible, but was criticized for not providing a full-throated condemnation of the white nationalist elements of the protests, which included former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke and white supremacist leader Richard Spencer.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred bigotry and violence on many sides," the president said during a Saturday press conference. "On many sides."

When asked to clarify what the president meant by "many sides," a White House official said Trump "was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and all sides. There was violence between protesters and counter protesters today."

Trump did not respond when reporters asked whether the Charlottesville car crash was terrorism or if he denounced white nationalism.

The most recent incident came after torch-wielding white nationalists marched through the University of Virginia campus on Friday night. Friday and Saturday's alt-right rallies were held to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Hundreds of counter-protesters show up and protest against an estimated nine attendees of a planned rally by a Ku Klux Klan-affiliated group in Dayton, Ohio.