Indiana State Police investigators are trying to determine if the recent assault on former Ku Klux Klan leader Jeff Berry by his son, Anthony Berry and another man, were tied to the men's efforts to reinvigorate the KKK. Not surprisingly the current focus of the hate group is closely aligned with focus of Christian fundamentalists--homosexuals and illegal immigrants. The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette's Angela Mapes reports today:
Two men charged in the beating of former Ku Klux Klan leader Jeff Berry are believed to be involved in recent efforts to reinvigorate the Klan in northeast Indiana, a state police detective said.
Fred Wilson, 21, of the 200 block of North Elm Street, Albion, was arrested Friday and charged with battery, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Wilson is the second suspect arrested in connection with the beating.
He is accused of throwing a chair at Jeff Berry, 53, and punching him the evening of July 1 during a party in Spencerville. During the same argument, Berry’s son, 31-year-old Anthony Berry, beat his father in the head with his fist, critically injuring him, according to court documents.
Anthony Berry was arrested Tuesday on an aggravated battery charge.
Computer-generated fliers recently distributed in downtown Auburn listed post office boxes in Auburn and Albion as contacts for the Ku Klux Klan. State Police Detective Mark Heffelfinger confirmed that the Albion post office box is registered under Fred Wilson’s name and that the Auburn box is registered to Anthony Berry.
The brochure denounces homosexuality and “illegal immagrants.”
Based on the information on the fliers, Anthony Berry and Wilson appear to be acquaintances or friends who have been involved recently in Klan activity, Heffelfinger said. Heffelfinger would not comment on whether Anthony Berry’s or Wilson’s apparent involvement with the Klan had anything to do with the argument
that led to Jeff Berry’s beating.
In the 1920s, the KKK reigned supreme in Indiana, controlling the Indiana legislature and all state-wide elected officials. The group, which has historically been comprised of white Protestants, used its political clout to target minorities with whom it differed, such as blacks, Catholics, Jews and immigrants. While Christian fundamentalist groups abhor comparisons of them to the KKK, their legislative goals are often similar. Christian fundamentalists are the leading forces behind current legislative pushes against homosexuals and illegal immigrants.
This is a family of idiots. This other cat was 21 years old, probably dumber than a box of rocks. The old man took him to the mat do you think he has brain to put together a group of KKK?
ReplyDeleteWishful thinking for many raced whites, let them fade into the past as the ugly past that they represented..lynching and trying to depopulate the African-American community.
KKK stuff, yeah, a lot of numnuts there. But there is an intelligensia working that does not take kindly the slap in the face dished out by non whites after such elaborate integration efforts have been afforded. You may read about this from Human Rights Watch, Hard Time.
ReplyDeleteThe full text of the Human Rights Watch report can be read at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/prison
I was a former member of this organiziation. Anthony Berry was always jealous of his fathers power but could not show, nor aquire the inteligence or knowledge of the old man! On the other hand anthony was taught nothing but hate for all,"un-equal" races his whole life, so when his father, his "teacher of hate", changed his tune about hatred into one of equality what could be expected to happen but for him to turn years of rage toward the man that created it within him in the first place. To the family of Rev. Jeff Berry my deepest regrets for his pain and to Tony.....good luck with your quest for sanity!
ReplyDeleteYou people know nothing about Jeff Berry or his son Anthony Berry. Just so everyone knows that Jeff and Anthony rekindled their relationship before Jeff passed.
ReplyDelete