Glenn Beck Compares Pro-Immigration Protesters To The Ku Klux Klan

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has been a major influence on the Republican party’s hard-line immigration stance, which played a major part in their defeat in the last presidential election*. That hard line came home to roost over the weekend, as 300 protesters descended on Kobach’s home for a peaceful, if loud, demonstration. Kobach, who was not home at the time, responded with what sounded like a threat of violence, and internet celebrity Glenn Beck identified the protesters as using “the same exact tactics used by the Klan in the 1960s,” and are “just changing their hood.”

Kobach, for his part, agreed with Beck, saying that the protesters were “just not wearing white cloaks, but this is exactly KKK-type intimidation.” He said that he’s looking into having the protesters prosecuted under a provision of the Civil Rights Act:

The protesters have their own rationale for going to Kobach’s home, as he has rebuffed other attempts to meet with them by claiming that his immigration work is done on his own time, but it’s fair to say that some of them grossly overstepped by going onto his property. Their purpose, though, was clearly a peaceful one, which Kobach responded to by telling Fox News’ Todd Starnes that “It’s important we recognize there’s a reason we have the Second Amendment.”

The protesters took this as a threat of violence, but Kobach insisted otherwise to a local paper:

In an interview with Fox News today, Kobach said the incident should serve as a reminder of the need for Second Amendment gun rights. But Kobach told the Lawrence Journal-World he was not implying he would have used a gun against the protesters.

So, he was saying he’d unleash his well-regulated militia on them instead?

Kobach and Beck are clearly trolling with this garbage, but it is worth pointing out that, aside from the obvious fact that the Ku Klux Klan was never known for its vicious use of megaphones and signs, or that the protesters had the courage (that the Klan lacked) to stand and be identified, Glenn Beck and Kris Kobach are comparing a peaceful protest in Kobach’s front yard to the Klan on damn near the exact 50th anniversary of Medgar Evers‘ assassination. These protesters are nothing like the Klan.

What’s also a bit scary is the Kansas Secretary of State’s tenuous grasp of the law. Although Kansas does have a “Stand your ground” law, you still can’t just shoot peaceful protesters, or trespassers on your lawn. As for the civil rights statute Kobach cites, you can watch the video of the protest, and see if any of these apply:

(1) Preventing officer from performing duties

If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire to prevent, by force, intimidation, or threat, any person from accepting or holding any office, trust, or place of confidence under the United States, or from discharging any duties thereof; or to induce by like means any officer of the United States to leave any State, district, or place, where his duties as an officer are required to be performed, or to injure him in his person or property on account of his lawful discharge of the duties of his office, or while engaged in the lawful discharge thereof, or to injure his property so as to molest, interrupt, hinder, or impede him in the discharge of his official duties;

(2) Obstructing justice; intimidating party, witness, or juror

If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire to deter, by force, intimidation, or threat, any party or witness in any court of the United States from attending such court, or from testifying to any matter pending therein, freely, fully, and truthfully, or to injure such party or witness in his person or property on account of his having so attended or testified, or to influence the verdict, presentment, or indictment of any grand or petit juror in any such court, or to injure such juror in his person or property on account of any verdict, presentment, or indictment lawfully assented to by him, or of his being or having been such juror; or if two or more persons conspire for the purpose of impeding, hindering, obstructing, or defeating, in any manner, the due course of justice in any State or Territory, with intent to deny to any citizen the equal protection of the laws, or to injure him or his property for lawfully enforcing, or attempting to enforce, the right of any person, or class of persons, to the equal protection of the laws;

(3) Depriving persons of rights or privileges

If two or more persons in any State or Territory conspire or go in disguise on the highway or on the premises of another, for the purpose of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person or class of persons of the equal protection of the laws, or of equal privileges and immunities under the laws; or for the purpose of preventing or hindering the constituted authorities of any State or Territory from giving or securing to all persons within such State or Territory the equal protection of the laws; or if two or more persons conspire to prevent by force, intimidation, or threat, any citizen who is lawfully entitled to vote, from giving his support or advocacy in a legal manner, toward or in favor of the election of any lawfully qualified person as an elector for President or Vice President, or as a Member of Congress of the United States; or to injure any citizen in person or property on account of such support or advocacy; in any case of conspiracy set forth in this section, if one or more persons engaged therein do, or cause to be done, any act in furtherance of the object of such conspiracy, whereby another is injured in his person or property, or deprived of having and exercising any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States, the party so injured or deprived may have an action for the recovery of damages occasioned by such injury or deprivation, against any one or more of the conspirators.

(h/t Crooksandliars)
*The Republicans fielded a presidential candidate in 2012, a man named Mitt Romney.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.