COLUMBUS – With the threat of a white supremacist gathering looming in northeast Ohio, Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown met Friday with central Ohio community leaders to talk about how to improve cooperation between federal, state and local agencies is heading off violence such as that which broke out in the streets of Charlottesville, Va., earlier this month.
Brown took part in a roundtable discussion with law enforcement officials and faith and community leaders at the Columbus Urban League Friday to discuss hate groups and threats of domestic terrorism in the wake of the Charlottesville attack, according to a release from his office.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Ohio ranks in the top ten states for the number of active hate groups, with thirty-five operating in the state, Brown said in a statement.
In a letter to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Brown says he has asked for a list of domestic terrorist organizations or hate groups which federal authorities know to be present in Ohio and information on cases of domestic terrorism or hate crimes in the state, including closed investigations into domestic terrorism or hate crimes.
Brown also asked for information on how federal agencies share information on domestic terror organizations and hate groups with state and local law enforcement.
Meanwhile, a member of an Ohio-based white supremacist group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan says his organization is recruiting members in Ohio and plans to hold a rally next month.
Terry Greathouse of the Ohio realm of the East Coast Knights, a KKK-affiliated group, says his organization has been targeting eastern Ohio counties because of growing interest there and the area’s history of KKK involvement, The Akron Beacon Journal reported.
Flyers from the group have been found in and around Wooster.
The local NAACP chapter and other organizations plan to hold a rally Sunday opposing racial hatred.
Greathouse says his group wanted to hold a counter-protest but didn’t submit plans to police in time.