 This is Extreme Speech, an EKB News Special Report. Good afternoon and welcome back to our special news report, I'm Gary Slaw. And I'm Jill Fraley-Dotson, a lot of movement going on in downtown Pikeville at the moment. That's where we're going to go now live to news reporter Shannon Deskins who has been covering the event from the start. Shannon, what can you tell us now? I'm Shannon Deskins reporting from downtown Pikeville and what you are seeing behind me is the arrival of the traditionalist workers party. Now there's about 40 cars in their caravan according to local law enforcement and they just received a police escort as for a safety precaution into downtown Pikeville. So what you are seeing arriving right now are members of the traditionalist workers party. Ronnie, if you can pan over this way, you can see the t-shirts that are obviously the logo that we have seen since they announced their arrival here in Pikeville. So what you're seeing right now are the members arriving and parking their vehicles. So well, hopefully we can get someone to speak to us here just to talk about, let me just ask, is there anyone here who would talk, would make a statement to the... Oh my God, I can't hold on just one more minute. Are you put this way? Okay, we're trying to get over this way to see if we can catch a quick statement from someone here. Is there someone here who could make a quick statement? Let me go to get my information, make that time to screw up interviews. We'll do that after the rally or while the rally's going on. So you can see that they're here, they're running a little bit late this afternoon, but they're trying to get organized and they're going to march over into their spot. So let's just stay here live with them for a few minutes and you can see how they're gonna organize, how they're gonna plan on getting over to their spot. So we'll just stop here for a moment. We'll stay live, but you can just kind of watch as they continue to pull into the parking lot. As I said, law enforcement tells us there's about 40 cars in their caravan. So this is the much anticipated arrival of the group that everyone has been waiting on. So let's just kind of just get some sites from as they organize. So as you can see, they are planning to come in with their banners and their signs as they make their appearance into downtown Plotville. They will be arriving through behind BB&T Bank. So that's what law enforcement have told us. They won't be marching down Main Street. They will be marching behind BB&T Bank, which will come out behind the old courthouse and directly take them into their designated meeting area. What you're getting right now are behind-the-scenes looks at how they plan on appearing. They are still talking amongst themselves on organizing their group and how they're going to approach and appear into downtown Plotville. The where we are right now behind the BB&T Bank building is outside of the view of the other groups that are gathering downtown. And I'm sure we will follow this group around and we will stay live with you. And I guarantee you'll be able to tell when they become into view of the other groups downtown. And we see that they're mostly gathered here, but there are still few vehicles that are pulling in and parking. So we're still three or four minutes. So we're going to take a look at the way of them actually beginning their march into their designated meeting area. Looking pictures now live of downtown Pikeville, you see the National Socialist Movement making their way onto Main Street to where the Antifa groups have been for at least an hour now, Gary Sloan, waiting on their arrival. Certainly getting their things together and certainly Shane and Ronnie have done a fantastic job. They're right there where they've been organizing how they're going to march into downtown exclusively on EKB News, the organization of how they're going to get together. Traditionals work for party now. We see National Socialist Movement. Certainly when they get to the point of the courthouse there where the other groups have assembled, you'll certainly hear something. Absolutely, you will. And of course, this once again, this is exclusive right now on EKB TV. You are seeing this live as it is happening in downtown Pikeville. And again, approximately, as you heard Shannon a few moments ago mention, approximately 40 vehicles came in. They have now disembarked out of the vehicles. They have gathered themselves. And now as you can see, they're beginning to make a movement very shortly to the rally position. Tom and Dr. Tom Jasek is with us as well. And Tom, your thoughts of this situation? Well, it just brings back memories of when the Ku Klux Klan came up from Greensboro, North Carolina and tried to organize in Pike County and Johnson County, Floyd County. And of course they had to march through Pike County, actually two of them. The first one, local people just lined up and turned their backs to them, which I thought was a wonderful way to protest it without causing any violence or trouble that kind of showed their disdain for the group. Of course, you have a very different situation now and it's not local people who are protesting but people who are coming from out of state. So that will certainly be a contrast. And we're looking at people right now that have traveled several states away to come to Pikeville, Kentucky for this demonstration. Yeah. The anti-fascist movement was originally based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. And certainly they have a network that stretches across the country. So yeah, they can bring in people that I'm almost noticed. A few people here, a few people there, but when they congregate, they can make a stand. Tom, you mentioned a few years ago when the Ku Klux Klan tried to organize more here and did march. Let's explain a little bit about the difference in these two groups. Because I think there's a little bit of confusion about the two. Well, the Ku Klux Klan has always viewed the Nazis as being something from a foreign country, which they are, of course, Germany and Europe, whereas they see themselves as something that naturally occurred in the United States and they've been protecting the United States from foreign influences. You know, a lot of times you're splitting hairs in etiology, I guess, as you might with religion. And that's what you really see here. Sometimes these groups will come together for rallies like this. And then other times they'll argue amongst themselves as to exactly what their stand should be. The Ku Klux Klan was probably more southern and Midwestern in its orientation. It was certainly something that arose from the Civil War, where the original Klan died out, to really try to prevent African-Americans from exercising new freedoms that had been given them during reconstruction. But it really died out in the 1870s as the federal government took a strong stand against them. It did reappear during a time in the 1920s when there was kind of a reaction to the intense immigration that was occurring in the United States at that time. And you actually see something in our own day that is similar to that. A lot of these groups are getting a hearing because in many areas of our country, they have experienced a lot of change in their population. The population is more diverse, and so I think that's causing some fear. And this is kind of a natural reaction to that. So though the groups are different, certainly some of the underlying causes for their emerging are similar to the Klan in the past and now groups like the traditional worker party in the present day. Again, you are looking at exclusive pictures of downtown Pikeful. The rally is continuing. Now the traditionalist worker party, national socialist movement have made their way to their designated area, which is on the side of the Old Pike County Courthouse where there's some benches and seats that people can congregate. And then across the street, the anti-fog groups that have assembled that they have stayed behind their barricade for the moment. And of course, we're certainly hoping that the calm continues. Of course, there's going to be a lot of dialogue back and forth, no doubt, especially when the rest of the groups arrive. But you can see certainly taking a stand there with their banners displayed, t-shirts displayed. Still calm for the moment and each party just exchanging some dialogue, but very unsettling picture there to see that group member holding a very large rifle looks like at the moment. Not what you would typically see ever in the downtown streets of Pikeful. And as we've mentioned all day long, these are people that are not from here. They do not live here. They have selected Pikeful, as Tom mentioned earlier, as a younger community with the college, certainly with the University of Pikeful growing by leaks and valves every day. To gain attention for whatever their movement or their cause might be. That's right, and you're looking at these pictures now on EKB TV, the video that's coming into us live. And so far, everything peaceful. As you can see, a line of law enforcement from various agencies in between the two groups, the two groups inside their barricades, we pray that that continues as it has so far, and we hope that that continues. Tom, something that came to my mind, and that is, again, we talked about this earlier during our live show. Why Pikeful, Kentucky? I mean, we're talking a town of, say, 7,000 residents. And here in Eastern Kentucky? Well, you know, this is a group that hopes to recruit people who are white, and frankly, we have a very white population. It's not because of any extreme prejudice or violence towards African-Americans. I mean, just the history of the place has worked out that way, and I think that they just feel that it would be easier to recruit in a place like this than it would be in, say, downtown Chicago, where they would certainly get a lot of blowback. Absolutely. Jill? We're gonna go back downtown Pikeful now, live to Shannon Deskins, who is in the middle of everything going on. Shannon. And again, I guess we have been live, but we have just witnessed the arrival of the traditionalist workers party. Now, they have come in probably bigger numbers than people anticipated today. So they came, I guess you can tell, that they're ready for a confrontation. So we're not exactly sure. Now, what the platform is gonna be, whether they're gonna try to speak, obviously the countergroups on the other side are using megathons and noise making items to try to drown them out. So I'm not sure what could possibly happen here that would be productive on either side. So right now, there's pretty much a stare down going on between the traditionalist workers party. They're not being very vocal at this point. They're just kind of staring down the other side of the street. So maybe in a few minutes, tensions will settle and we'll see what will happen. But we will remain to keep the cameras running live while this is going on here in downtown Pikeville. But you can see a lot of signs on the other side. They're saying no one wants you here. They're calling the other side racist. They're yelling terms like Nazi. So you can tell there's some on the megaphone that are, I guess you could say taunting the groups on the other side. So we have been told by law enforcement to be very, very cautious in this area. Of course, there's no question. This situation is very volatile. At this moment, anything could happen from either side. So we're going to take a quick break, kind of get resituated. But I guarantee if anything happens, anything changes at all, stay tuned. We will break directly live into programming here on EKB TV. I'm Shannon Desk, who's reporting from Main Street in downtown Pikeville. Thank you very much, Shannon. And of course, stay safe. You and the EKB news crew in that very volatile situation there. Jill, I believe we're going to kind of wrap things up for right now anyway. For right now, we are going to wrap things up. But stay assured that if anything were to transpire downtown, if things were to get a little bit more heated than they already are, we will certainly come back to you live and bring you those live exclusive pictures that you will only see here on EKB TV. In the meantime, though, if you want to follow throughout the day or EKB news Facebook page, we'll be posting live videos throughout the day, ekbtb.com, anything that you need. And of course, on the stations of East Kentucky Broadcasting via radio, we will certainly be updating you. We'll also be back at 6 o'clock for a complete wrap up of the day's events. But again, if anything should unfold in the next little bit, we'll certainly join you again live. Absolutely. We will. And our thanks also to Tom and Jason. It's a pleasure. And we thank you for being with us for this special report. This is Extreme Speech, an EKB News special report.