The protest taunt “Cops and Klan, hand in hand” emerged from an observable phenomenon: far-right vigilantes have long been either disproportionately represented in law enforcement agencies or allied with them. During the 1960s, Southern sheriffs fought civil rights advocates by day while Klansmen took over at night — and they were often the same people.

While the Klan may have seen themselves as opponents of the state, they frequently served the same ends. The far right has always played this role, drawing sections of the working class into reactionary movements that claim to be rebellious while ultimately defending the status quo by acting as an effective foil to the political left.

This dynamic has played out in other countries, especially in areas like the North of Ireland where minority rights are at the heart of conflict. When a civil rights movement emerged demanding equal rights for the nationalist minority in the late 1960s, unionists responded with violence, dismissing it as a plot by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).