Photos capture the news Saturday at Stone Mountain: White power demonstrators at the "Rock Stone Mountain" rally at Georgia's Stone Mountain Park Saturday attracted counter-protesters who clashed with police. A heavy police protest greeted counter protesters with the All Out ATL group as they entered Stone Mountain Park. Protesters raised barricades and threw rocks and fireworks at police. The counter-protesters first faced off with police on a park road, chanting "Black Lives Matter" and "Hey hey, ho ho, the KKK has got to go." After being turned away by police, the protesters took to wooded trails attempting to reach the white power groups.
The rally and protests closed Stone Mountain Park attractions, the first such closing due to protests in recent memory.
Stone Mountain, which takes its name from a towering granite outcropping that is popular with both hikers and tourists, is both a popular park and, by Georgia law, an official Confederate Memorial.
Park police were joined by officers of the Georgia State Patrol, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, DeKalb County Police and two helicopters.
In their rally permit, organizers said they expected as many as 2,000 white extremist protesters but this morning they were lowering the bar. John Michael Estes, one of the organizers, said the enormous numbers of police and the park's decision not to let them climb the mountain "cut down our numbers quite a bit."
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