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Roxboro police to host Monday meeting after Ku Klux Klan parades

Officials with the Roxboro Police Department are inviting the community to attend a press conference on Monday where they will discuss the caravan of about 20 vehicles organized by the Ku Klux Klan that drove through the town on Saturday.

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ROXBORO, N.C. — Officials with the Roxboro Police Department will host a meeting Monday to discuss 20 vehicles organized by the Ku Klux Klan that drove through the city on Saturday celebrating Donald Trump's victory.
The Ku Klux Klan celebrated Trump's win with a parade, waving Confederate and American flags from cars Saturday afternoon in Roxboro. Natalie Allison Janicello, a reporter for The (Burlington, N.C.) Times-News, captured the convoy on video and shared it on Twitter.

Roxboro Police Chief David Hess said the group posted the event on social media but never said it would take place in Roxboro. According to Hess, the group was present for around five minutes, and there were no bystanders watching.

Officers blocked an intersection along N.C. Highway 501 so the convoy would move and exit as quickly as possible. Resident Gerald Wallace said he was disappointed to see the parade happen in his community.

"My issue was you allowed this to happen and you didn't notify your community. My child, along with any other African-American child or any white child could have been standing on the corner or the road and could have been called the 'N word'," Wallace said.

Hess said the city learned of the parade at the last minute.

Concern from the community has prompted Hess and other officials to host a press conference discussing their process in handling the group's unexpected visit.

"I and the City of Roxboro do not condone the beliefs of the KKK," said Hess. "We understand their presence invoked raw emotions. I will address those emotions and the justified legal response of the police department during the press conference."

The meeting will be held at the Roxboro Police Department located at 109 South Lamar Street at 12 p.m.

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