
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 6, 1991                   TAG: 9103060314
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

JANUARY KKK RALLY COST BLACKSBURG AT LEAST $20,000

Police estimate that between $20,000 and $23,000 was spent staffing the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan rally held in January in Blacksburg.

The cost reflects a combination of salaries and equipment expenditures. Some 250 police officers from Blacksburg, Radford, Christiansburg, Montgomery County and the state police worked the half-hour event.

Many of the officers were used to form a protective buffer between the 30 Klan members and the estimated 500 spectators.

Other police were kept on standby, out of sight of the crowd, and plain-clothed officers mingled with the spectators.

The Blacksburg Police Department reported expenses for overtime and materials at $6,855.

The Christiansburg Police Department, which sent 23 officers to the rally, estimated costs at $4,000.

Radford lent 16 officers and spent approximately $2,500 staffing the march.

The Montgomery County Sheriff's Department sent 52 deputies and estimated that the department's expenses were between $5,000 and $8,000.

State police estimated their costs for equipment and transportation above salaries at about $2,500.

Salary expenses were not included in the state police figures because no overtime pay was spent staffing the rally.

The march was held Jan. 20, the day before the celebration of Martin Luther King birthday.

by CNB