riot police
© Ben GrayA heavy police protest greeted counter protesters with the All Out ATL group as they entered Stone Mountain Park. Several protesters were arrested when they clashed with police near a "white power" rally in Stone Mountain Park.
Protests surrounding a rally at Stone Mountain erupted in violence Saturday as demonstrators trying to reach a white power group hurled rocks and fireworks at police attempting to block them.

Eight counterprotesters had been arrested by late morning for refusing to take their masks off, authorities said.

At least one was seen spraying a Georgia State Patrol officer with pepper spray. Others engaged in physical skirmishes with law enforcement officers dressed in riot gear, said John Bankhead, Stone Mountain Park police spokesman.

Only about two dozen white power demonstrators were at the "Rock Stone Mountain" rally in the Yellow Daisy lot at the DeKalb County park. Stone Mountain is known for its confederate memorial carving. Organized and supported by various members of the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nation sects and other openly white supremacists, Rock Stone Mountain's mission statement calls for a peaceful protest, but a group called All Out Atlanta has formed to stop them.

Counterprotesters first faced off with police on a park road, chanting "Black Lives Matter" and "Hey hey, ho ho, the KKK has got to go." After being turned away by police, the protesters took to wooded trails attempting to reach the white power groups.

"We're trying to get to where we can protest them," Craig Clark said.

They reached a perch where they could see the Confederate flags. But when police prevented them from entering, the exchange turned violent. Counterprotesters emptied trash cans and threw rocks toward the barricades. Fireworks exploded.

Police in riot gear were tense and encircled the white supremacists to keep the groups apart.

"Do not move! Do not break my line," shouted one police leader.

Katherine Thilo, who said she was part of her church group's peaceful protest, was left frantically looking for her daughter as the situation escalated.

"Ninety-nine percent of the protesters are peaceful, but this is what they gonna show on the news," she said.

After Thilo's daughter was spotted, church member Scott Maddox pulled them both away.

"I came here for a peaceful rally. When you start throwing rocks ... that is not what this is about," Maddox said. "We are not gonna be a part of that."

Park officials have closed roads leading to and from the Yellow Daisy Lot near the park police station with the intention of keeping the rally, dubbed Rock Stone Mountain, far away from regular guests and from clashes with counterprotesters.

In their rally permit, organizers said they expected as many as 2,000 white extremist protesters but Saturday morning they were lowering the bar. John Michael Estes, one of the organizers, said the number of police officers and the park's decision not to let them climb the mountain "cut down our numbers quite a bit."

Estes and fellow organizer Greg Calhoun said others may be scared away by threats from counterprotesters online.

"That's America these days," Calhoun said.

Park police have the support of the Georgia State Patrol, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, DeKalb County police and two helicopters in an effort to keep the rally and counterprotests tame.

Confederate flag supporters Kim Beasley and Dwayne Jones arrived early wearing T-shirts saying, "Heritage not Hate."

They carried the Stars and Bars flag and the Bonnie Blue flag.

"We don't believe in carrying these flags for racist reasons," said Beasley, from Birmingham.

She added, "We don't believe the Civil War was over racism. It was over tyranny."

She also spoke about the rift between the flag supporters and the white supremacists, saying, "They have blocked us from their websites. They call us turncoats."

"I've never been politically correct," she said. "My mother used to tell me to have more tact. I just said I'm going to be honest."

Jones saw a black couple admiring the great mountain and offered to take their picture.

He said he had a relative in the Civil War.

Holding the Stars and Bars flag, he said, "I'm carrying this for him."