As per a 8/12/17 NY Times article, “Car Hits Crowd After White Nationalist Rally in Charlottesville Ends in Violence” by Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Brian M. Rosenthal, “The city of Charlottesville was engulfed by violence on Saturday as white nationalists and counter-protesters clashed in one of the bloodiest fights to date over the removal of Confederate monuments across the South.”
“White nationalists had long planned a demonstration over the city’s decision to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee. But the rally quickly exploded into racial taunting, shoving and outright brawling, prompting the governor to declare a state of emergency and the National Guard to join the police in clearing the area.”
“Those skirmishes mostly resulted in cuts and bruises. But after the rally at a city park was dispersed, a car bearing Ohio license plates plowed into a crowd near the city’s downtown mall, killing a 32-year-old woman. Some 34 others were injured, at least 19 in the car crash, according to a spokeswoman for the University of Virginia Medical Center.”
Col. Martin Kumer, the superintendent of the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, confirmed Saturday evening that an Ohio man, James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, had been arrested and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at the scene of a crash that resulted in a death. But the authorities declined to say publicly that Mr. Fields was the driver of the car that plowed into the crowd.”
“Witnesses to the crash said a gray sports car accelerated into a crowd of counter-demonstrators — who were marching jubilantly near the mall after the white nationalists had left — and hurled at least two people in the air.”
“The planned rally was promoted as “Unite the Right” and both its organizers and critics said they expected it to be one of the largest gathering of white nationalists in recent times, attracting groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis and movement leaders like David Duke and Richard Spencer.”
“Many of these groups have felt emboldened since the election of Donald J. Trump as president. Mr. Duke, a former imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, told reporters on Saturday that the protesters were “going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump” to “take our country back.”
“Late on Saturday night, the Department of Justice announced that it was opening a civil-rights investigation into “the circumstances of the deadly vehicular incident,” to be conducted by the F.B.I., the United States attorney for the Western District of Virginia, and the department’s Civil Rights Division.”
“The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement. “When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.”
According to WSET News, there are three people (ONLY) who were arrested for today’s violence in Charlottesville, VA.:
“Troy Dunigan, 21, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. ”
“Jacob L. Smith, 21, of Louisa, Virginia, was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault & battery. ”
“James M. O’Brien, 44, of Gainesville, Florida, was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed handgun.”
PHOTOS BY REUTERS
This just made me cry.
Dear Kim,
This is beyond sad. If the current administration had its way, we would be on a time machine taking us back to the 1950’s. But most of us don’t want to go there.
Hugs, Gronda
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
Visual evidence of American hate, in full view! Domestic terrorist and emboldened White Supremacists! 😪 … thanks to the ‘so-called president’ … ‘he who must not be named’! EVER …
Dear Horty,
I am still reeling from the aftershock of this story on so many levels. I am upset with the GOP and supposed Christian Evangelicals who voted for him in droves even though they all knew full well that he was king of the birther movement questioning President Obama’s birthplace and his legitimacy. Now some are claiming to recoil in shock.
There is no moral equivalency between the White supremacists’ haters and those who oppose them.
Thanks a million times over for all of your support and for this reblog.
Hugs, Gronda
❤️❤️
It’s heartrending. The President will have to say more and do more. —- Suzanne
“Make America Great Again”, “Take back our country”, and other slogans from the campaign supporters of tRump, have been shouted and screamed during many political rallies across this nation in the last several years. Yet we still have people who claim to be shocked and surprised at the events of the last few days? People did not elect tRump the person, they elected a viewpoint or ideal that they had kept hidden under their lily white façade of superiority based on skin color! The man simply offered them what no other person had dared openly offer them since the end of the 1860’s! The great white wave is rolling and the real question is if it can be stopped, or perhaps it could be asked is there enough of us who believe in equality for all people to stop this movement towards destruction of this nation? I predict we will know in a much shorter period of time than many people expect, let’s hope the nation takes the correct path!
Gronda, let’s hope this unfortunate event will galvanize people against the domestic terrorism by hate groups in the US, which number over 1,000 and dwarf Islamic radical groups. Real leaders from religion and politics (again, I do not consider the incumbent President a leader), are stepping up and condemning this behavior. Yet, it needs to continue. The President is highly culpable as he embraced these hate groups and empowered them.
Yes, we have the right to civilly protest, but being armed to the teeth looking for a battle, is not conducive to civil protests. Also, to say it plainly, no American is more American than another. So, for people to swear allegiance to a mission that condemns others, is inappropriate. Standing up for one rights, does not give you the right to denounce another’s.
Keith
It is beyond time to declare that all hate groups, regardless of who they “hate”, are categorized as “enemies of the State” and then we can constitutionally ban them from gathering and spewing forth their bigotry and hatred.
Dear Suze,
If I were president, I would put these White Supremacists on the US terrorist list where they belong and this way, they would not be able to claim their rights to “free speech.”
Hugs, Gronda
I am so sorry for Ordinary America.
I am with ‘Suze’ on this one. These are enemies of your nation.
Take care your ordinary folk.
Roger
Trump wants to take us back to the 1950s. If he studied history, it might be noted to him that this era only swept the problems of problems of prejudice “under the rug” so to speak. Does he even care ?