The New England Police Benevolent Association would like to set the record straight about a pro-Donald Trump demonstration by people in Ku Klux Klan robe: They police group had nothing to do with it.
During Tuesday’s Republican presidential balloting in Nevada, people turned up in Klan robes pledging support for Trump. One bore a sign that read: “The New England Police Benevolent Association support Trump! We support them!”
“I can assure you of one thing: we don’t have any members that are members of the Ku Klux Klan,” the group’s executive director, Jerry Flynn, told TheWrap on Monday.
Tony Archinski, the NEPBA’s director of administration, told TheWrap on Wednesday that the group was as baffled by the protest as everyone else.
“We had nothing to do with that. Like everybody else we saw it on the Internet,” Archinski said. “I’m thinking that somebody just picked up on that and made themselves a sign.”
Asked if the group had been the victim of trickery by people trying to make it look bad, he replied: “What do you think?”
Archinski said he believed the group, which represents law enforcement officers across New England, was targeted because of its endorsement of Trump in December.
“I have no idea who is in those pictures,” he said. “I think that somewhere along the line, someone picked up that our membership endorsed Trump, and they’re making use of that for their purposes.”
Archinski said the group not only has no connection to the KKK, it also has no links to Nevada.