Stone Mountain Park police are gearing up for two same-day rallies that are bound to spark protests.
A “pro-white” group—Rock Stone Mountain, and a Confederate Heritage group are both having rallies on April 23 at Stone Mountain Park.
According to the Rock Stone Mountain Facebook post, “This will be an openly Pro White March up Stone Mountain that climaxes in a rally at the top. It is to be followed by a Pro White concert at a separate location that evening.”
The “All Out Atlanta” coalition group opposes the rallies and is handing out fliers hoping for a big turnout at Stone Mountain to protest.
Marlon Kautz, who represents the coalition, says they feel the urgent need to stop what they call white supremacist groups. “White supremacy is coming out of the woodwork in our society, and we can’t ignore that anymore. We need to confront it and shut it down,” he told Channel 2 Acton News.
“All Out Atlanta” does not have a permit, so Stone Mountain police told the news station, “We’ll have to deal with that when it happens, but there is a permitting process. It’s a new ordinance that’s just been implemented in the last several months,” Stone Mountain Park police spokesperson John Bankhead told Channel 2.
Stone Mountain police plan to bring in extra security to keep all the demonstrators away from each other, Channel 2 said.
Bankhead told the station that Stone Mountain would rather not have a pro-white rally at the park. “First of all, we don’t condone any of this. We wish they would take their rallies and go some other place,” he said. “This is a family-oriented park for people to come and enjoy what this park has to offer, so we wish they would go some other place.”
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