Grass-roots probe of 1979 Klan shootings lays bulk of blame for killing of 5 activists on police By Tim Whitmire GREENSBORO, North Carolina (AP) - A grass-roots commission that investigated the 1979 shooting deaths of five communist organizers by members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party laid the bulk of blame for the violence on local police, who knew the white supremacists planned to attend a ’Death to the Klan" march, but failed to take action. ’(The) single most important element that contributed to the violent outcome of the confrontation was the absence of police" from the Nov. 3, 1979, march, the Greensboro Truth & Reconciliation Commission wrote in an executive summary of its nearly 400-page report. Despite having a paid informant among the ranks of the Klansmen - who led the Klan and Nazi caravan to the parade starting point - local police ’showed a stunning lack of curiosity in planning for the safety of the event," the report said. ’Even a small but noticeable police presence would almost certainly have prevented the loss of life," the report noted. Five people were killed when Klan and Nazi members opened fire on demonstrators gathering for a march and rally in Greensboro's Morningside Homes neighborhood that morning. Ten others were injured in the incident. The police department had no immediate comment. A department spokeswoman, Lt. Jane Allen, did not immediately return a message left on her voice mail. The report followed two years of work by the seven members of the commission and numerous staffers and volunteers. Their effort to probe the causes and outcomes of the 1979 shootings was modeled on similar efforts in South Africa, Peru and other foreign countries trying to put past atrocities behind them. The commission held three public hearings in the summer and fall of 2005, at which 54 people testified, and took private statements from scores of other people. Those testifying at the hearings included individuals wounded in the shootings, survivors of those who were killed, a Klansman and some current and former city officials. The goal, according to the volunteer commissioners, was to achieve ’restorative justice" - not after-the-fact punishment, but reconciliation and healing. The commission found that the Klan and Nazi members who opened fire at the demonstrators had headed to Greensboro on the morning of the shooting ’with malicious intent." ’We believe there is sufficient evidence to conclude that they intended to provoke a violent confrontation," the report said. The commission further noted that the communist activists also bear ’some, albeit lesser, responsibility" for provoking the Klan by beating on their caravan cars as they passed. ’The commission finds that the leadership of the Workers Voice Organization was very naive about the level of danger poised by their rhetoric and the Klan's propensity for violence," the report said. Debate has raged for years over whether the incident was a shooting or a shootout between the two sides.

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