KKK Leader Not Liable For Assault On Latino Teen

A KKK leader in Kentucky seems to have gotten away with inciting his members to violence, but since he wasn’t there when the men kicked then-16 year-old Jordan Gruver repeatedly until they broke his jaw, Ronald Edwards will get a new trial.

Edwards is the leader of perhaps the second-largest KKK group in the country, Imperial Klans of America, and wasn’t present when three other men beat Gruver so will get a new trial. So, apparently, you can incite hatred and violence, but you don’t have to bear the brunt of the consequences thereof…gee, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it, Gabrielle Giffords anyone?

Here’s more from the Courthoue News Service:

Jordan Gruver, an American citizen whose father is from Panama and mother is from Kentucky, was attacked at the 2006 Meade County Fair by four members of the IKA, which reportedly has the second largest membership of any Klan outfit.

Jarred Hensley, Andrew Watkins, Josh Cowles and Matthew Roberts were recruiting members at the fair because, as one of the men testified, Meade County is a “redneck county.” They were distributing cards and wearing steel-toed boots with red laces to show they had spilled blood for the white race.

When the group caught sight of Gruver, then 16, they called him “an illegal spic” and a “border hopper.” Watkins threw whiskey into Gruver’s face, and Hensley knocked the boy to the ground. As Gruver lay in the fetal position, the men repeatedly kicked him with their steel-toed boots, breaking his jaw and causing other injuries.

Edwards, the IKA leader who lives in Kentucky, was not at the fair and learned about the attack after police had arrested two of the men.