posted April 13, 2008 06:03 PM            

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A highway patrolman who was photographed in a handmade Ku Klux Klan costume while on duty the day before the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday has been suspended without pay, authorities said.

A fellow trooper who transmitted the cell phone photo of white-masked lawman has been demoted.

Craig Franklin, a 12-year veteran of the Ohio Highway Patrol, is pictured in the Jan. 20 photo with a white cone on his head, white paper mask and a white cloth covering his shoulders, the highway patrol said.

Franklin is otherwise in trooper uniform. A handgun holster, a radio normally issued by the patrol and other equipment can be seen in the photo, a report said.

Franklin and Trooper Eric Wlodarsky told an investigator that the picture was taken as a joke and was modeled on a television skit by comedian Dave Chappelle.

Highway patrol officials began an investigation after the patrol's Administrative Investigative Unit received an anonymous letter that included two photographs of Franklin in the outfit, an interoffice memo said.

Franklin, Wlodarsky another trooper and a dispatcher discussed the King holiday at their post on the day the photo was taken, the report said.

There are no blacks among the 13 troopers assigned to the Sandusky post.

"Obviously, we're extremely disappointed," patrol spokesman Lt. Shawn Davis said. "This kind of conduct cannot and will not be tolerated."

After a March 24 hearing, Wlodarsky was demoted from sergeant to trooper, transferred to another post and must attend a diversity awareness class. Franklin was placed on a five-day unpaid suspension and must take part in diversity awareness training, patrol documents show.

A third trooper who received the picture via a text message was given a one-day suspension for failing to report the incident and forwarding the photo to a subordinate.

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posted April 15, 2008 04:51 AM            

The present Ku Klux Klan is no longer one organization, but is made up of small independent chapters across the United States.[83] The formation of independent chapters has made the KKK groups more difficult to infiltrate and researchers find it hard to estimate their numbers.

KKK members have increased in recent years, with membership estimated at 5,000 to 8,000 among an estimated 179 chapters. The latest recruitment drives have used hot button issues like people's anxieties about illegal immigration, urban crime and same-sex marriage. [84]

The only known former member of the Klan to hold a federal office in the United States is Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who says he "deeply regrets" having joined the Klan over half a century ago, when he was about 24 years old.
Various ranks of the United White Knights of Texas
Various ranks of the United White Knights of Texas

Some of the larger KKK organizations currently in operation include:

* Bayou Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, prevalent in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and other areas of the Southeastern U.S.
* Church of the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan[85]
* Imperial Klans of America
* Knights of the White Kamelia
* Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, headed by National Director and self-claimed Pastor Thom Robb, and based in Zinc, Arkansas. Claims to be biggest Klan organization in America today. It refers to itself as the "sixth era Klan" and continues to be a racist group.

Klansmen and women at a cross burning in 2005.
Klansmen and women at a cross burning in 2005.

Numerous smaller groups use the Klan name. Estimates are that about two-thirds of KKK members are concentrated in the former Confederate States, with another third situated primarily in the Midwest.[86][85][87]

Although there are numerous KKK groups, the media and popular discourse generally speak of the Ku Klux Klan for expediency.

The ACLU has provided legal support to various factions of the KKK in defense of their First Amendment rights to hold public rallies, parades, and marches, and their right to field political candidates.

In a July 2005 incident, a Hispanic man's house was burned down in Hamilton, Ohio, after accusations that he sexually assaulted a nine-year-old white girl. Klan members in Klan robes showed up afterward to distribute pamphlets. Various Klan rallies occur every year across the country.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KKK