'Our members will be armed': Charlottesville cops brace for bloodshed as Klan rally to save Confederate statue

Police in Virginia are bracing for violence as the Ku Klux Klan descends upon Charlottesville to defend the Confederacy.

"Tensions are slowly boiling ahead of the scheduled Ku Klux Klan rally in Charlottesville on Saturday, and police barriers and security cameras already have been set up around Justice Park," the local newspaper, The Daily Progressreported.

The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan have threatened that many of their members will be armed.

"It’s an open-carry state, so our members will be armed," said James Moore of the Pelham, N.C. chapter of the Klan.

The armed Klan rally is being organized to defend the legacy of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The city of Charlottesville renamed Lee Park as Emancipation Park and is planning to remove a statue honoring General Lee.

"Meanwhile, some are looking at Saturday’s event as a dress rehearsal for the “Unite the Right” rally next month in Emancipation Park," The Daily Progress explained. "On Aug. 12, a rally that will be attended by far-right and extremist groups that promote racist, white nationalist and anti-Semitic sentiments is expected to draw about 400 participants."

"July 8 in Virginia, we will make a stand for our Southern history,” The Daily Progress reported was posted on the website for the Loyal White Knights. "They are trying to erase whites and our great culture right out of the history books."

Watch the three part ABC News investigative report, Inside the New Ku Klux Klan:

Part II

Part III