EDITORIAL: Hate Among Us- Klan Emerges In St. Tammany Parish
Times-Picayune (excerpt)

Cynthia Lynch's family describes a timid woman who had never ventured outside of her home state of Oklahoma before traveling Friday to St. Tammany Parish for a Klan initiation.

That ill-fated decision cost Ms. Lynch her life and revealed a fledgling Bogalusa-based Klan operation that neither St. Tammany nor Washington parish sheriff's officials knew existed.

The arrest of eight members of the Sons of Dixie Knights of the Ku Klux Klan seems to have essentially wiped out the group, which authorities believe sprang up recently in Washington Parish. After two of the men showed up at a Bogalusa convenience store Monday morning asking how to remove blood from clothing, sheriff's deputies quickly arrested them and closed in on the other six at the campsite near Sun.

Residents can take some comfort in the quick demise of the group and in the seeming cluelessness of its members. But this episode is a reminder that even a small, dull-witted hate group has the potential for violence.