Man in KKK outfit walks dog, waves to neighbors

Charles Michael Booth, 50, of Conover was “out walking his dog, wearing a Ku Klux Klan shirt, drinking a beer and waving at the traffic” near Monheim Road and Highway K in Conover Friday evening, according to the Vilas County Sheriff's Department. 

A northern Wisconsin man shocked neighbors by wearing what appears to be a Ku Klux Klan robe to walk a dog, who is black, over the weekend.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel identified the man in the hate-group garb as 50-year-old Charles Michael Booth, of Conover, Wisc. The roughly 1,200-person town was nearly 98% white, according to the 2000 Census.

Police made contact with Booth after several passersby notified them of the unusual sighting. They said that he was walking his dog, drinking a beer, politely waving at drivers and not in violation of any laws. Cops also claimed Booth wasn’t causing traffic problems.

A neighbor of Booth’s who said she has a “mixed race” family asked not to be identified, but said she was shocked by the incident.

“We froze,” that woman said. “We knew what we were looking at, but we didn’t know why.”

Area NAACP leader Gregory Jones reportedly called Booth’s fashion choice an act of terrorism mean to “create fear” among locals. The Southern Policy Law Center lists 15 hate groups in Wisconsin, though the KKK isn’t one of them.

Conover is just over 200 miles from Minneapolis, Minn., where the killing of George Floyd in police custody sparked protests that continue nationwide.