Answer:
the Ku Klux Klan march down Constitution Avenue. U.S. Marshals joined with local police agencies to keep anti-klan demonstrators from clashing with participants in the Klan march.
Washington, D.C. is not your ordinary American city and Sunday, October 28, 1990 was not just another ordinary day in the nation's capital. Congress was still trying to finalize the 1991 budget. The White house was considering its response to Saddam Hussein's bellicose rhetoric from the Mid-east. And a District Court Judge was granting the KLI Klux Klan
permission to march down Constitution.
For most Washingtonians, tensions at home and abroad become very common place events and are generally taken very calmly. However, the idea or a Ku Klux Klan march on the city's streets was a different matter. As word of the Klan rally raced through D.C. neighborhoods, local law enforcement officials became concerned and apprehensive.
The issue of granting marching permits to the Klan provoked some interagency tensions among police departments. However, one agency silently kept its vigil on events to come, and prepared for the worst. That agency was the district office of the U.S. Marshals Service.
The court order which permitted the Klan to march was issued at 1 :30 a.m. on Sunday. But for U.S. Marshal Herbert M. Rutherford, III, it came as no surprise. Since he was familiar with past rallies in the city, he also knew that there would probably be counter-demonstrations which would likely bring the potential for violence to the streets of Washington. Using his authority as the top-ranking federal law enforcement official in the city, Rutherford began to coordinate and federalize operations for the rally through the U. S. Marshals Service's Headquarters.
With the immediate approval of senior officials, a major call up of Deputy Marshals was initiated for the District and Superior Courts of Washington, D.C., the Eastern District of Virginia and the District of Maryland to provide supply and logistical support. By 7 a.m.. only five and one-half hours after the Federal district Judge issued his order, the operational command staff had assembled. An hour later, full coordination had begun with the U.S.
Park Police and U.S. Capitol Police Intelligence.
By 10 a.m., more than 80 Deputies and administrative personnel had assembled and were receiving their briefings. Because the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department was tasked with primary coverage of the march route, the Marshals had a different mission. Rutherford issued directives for the Marshals to stage as the final protective line for all police
departments involved and to seal any breeches that developed in the police
lines and make demonstrator arrests.