A new survey by the National Recreation and Park Association has found that nine in 10 Americans support the ability to assemble peacefully in parks and other public areas, although the group cautioned that the right shouldn't be used to incite hate.

The right to assembly was recently put to the test when white nationalists gathered in Charlottesville, Va., in August to protest the removal of a statute of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a city park. A woman was killed when a man identifying as a white nationalist allegedly drove his car into a counter-protest. A few far-right rallies have taken place in public spaces since then, some leading to violence as protesters and counter-protesters clashed.

The NRPA survey of 1,000 adults found 88 percent of respondents ranked the right to peaceful assembly in public space was either somewhat import, very important or extremely important. Five percent of respondents were unsure while the remainder didn't see it as important.

Millennials and Gen Xers were more likely than Baby Boomers to see the right to assembly in public places as important. No significant differences existed between races or people of different backgrounds, NRPA said.

"Our right to peacefully assemble in public parks should never be taken away," NRPA CEO Barbara Tulipane said. "However, this does not give people the right to use our parks to incite hate and violence. Hatred has no place in our nation's parks."

The survey was conducted for NRPA by Wakefield Research and has a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percent. http://bit.ly/2vLnTQu

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