Each day, we’ll have the latest news from the courtroom in the Sines v. Kessler Unite the Right trial. For coverage from previous days, check the list of links at the bottom of this page.
An expert in extremist movements testified Thursday in the Sines v. Kessler trial that violence is a core quality of white supremacy—and the defendants’ cross-examination of the witness was heated.
The civil case, with nine plaintiffs and two dozen defendants, contends the neo-Nazi organizers of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right rally conspired to commit violence.
Pete Simi is a sociology professor at Chapman University who has studied hate crimes, hate groups, and domestic terrorism since 1996. He wrote American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement’s Hidden Spaces of Hate, a book about the culture of the white supremacist movement and the central role violence plays, he said.
White supremacism is an organized effort to transform society, said Simi. It relies upon a common strategy: “the necessity of using violence to achieve the goal of creating a white ethnostate.”
After looking at thousands of texts, videos, and emails, and 575,000 posts on Discord with a colleague, he concluded, “The defendants relied on the core characteristics of the white supremacist movement when they organized Unite the Right.”
He then listed those characteristics: racist ideologies, the glorification and use of violence, the separation of public and private speech, and strategies to create plausible deniability for their actions.
Simi testified that Unite the Right organizers embraced those core qualities, with race as a leading indicator. Whites are seen as superior, while Jews are described as evil, corrupt, and contaminating society, he said. Blacks are seen as “inherently inferior and prone to criminality. That’s very prominent in their view.”
Plaintiffs’ attorney Roberta Kaplan entered as evidence a disturbing image defendant Robert “Azzmador” Ray posted on Discord that was titled the “n-word tote” and shows a device that impales a man. “This is a very grotesque illustration of what we were talking about,” said Simi, “a graphic, grotesque dehumanization.”
Plaintiffs have submitted as evidence hundreds of messages that rally attendees posted on Discord, a platform originally used for online gaming, said Simi. “At some point I became aware white supremacists had gravitated to Discord,” attracted to the platform because it was encrypted and the gamers there were potential recruits, he said.
Violence is another core characteristic of the white supremacist movement, Simi said. It’s “the way they understand the world,” whether that means discussing specific methods of committing violence or celebrating Hitler.
One component is “white genocide theory,” the idea that the white race is on the verge of extinction, he said, and that belief is related to “replacement theory.” During the August 11 tiki-torch march through UVA, neo-Nazis chanted, “you will not replace us,” and “Jews will not replace us.”
“They believe violence is a necessary course of action, self-defense to prevent extinction,” said Simi.
James Fields, who drove his Dodge Challenger into a crowd, tweeted a meme that said, “Love your race, stop white genocide.” The subtext, said Simi, is that “stopping white genocide requires violence.”
On the Charlottesville 2.0 Discord server, rallygoers discussed how to bring weapons to the event without making it obvious that they were bringing weapons. They talked about the merits of items such as flagpoles or ax handles. “These are almost mundane conversations on what makes a good weapon,” said Simi.
And that culture of violence is not that different from the Mafia, Al Qaeda, or ISIS, he said. “These conversations are necessary to normalize violence.”
Another characteristic of white supremacist movements is drawing a line between front stage speech and back stage speech, said Simi. Front stage is what they do in public to present themselves as palatable to a wider audience, and back stage is “when you let your hair down,” with more secretive communications and actions, he said.
An example would be KKK leader David Duke, who took a “suit-and-tie approach” in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. He used terms like “white civil rights” and “white heritage” to sound more innocuous, said Simi. The National Socialist Movement dropped its use of the swastika because they “believed it would help their optics,” not because they disavowed Nazis, he said.
In the lead-up to the rally, Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler emailed NSM leader Jeff Schoep and said the number one thing his guys could do would be to show up in plain clothes without flags. Schoep replied, “Keep in mind we ceased the use of the swastika in 2016.”
The fourth common characteristic of white supremacist movements that Simi identified is plausible deniability. The strategy involves doublespeak—talking in an intentionally deceptive way—and codes like the number 14, a common 14-word neo-Nazi slogan, or 88, a code for “heil Hitler,” in which each 8 represents the eighth letter of the alphabet. Joking and the use of humor are also ways to deflect racist intent, and triggering to provoke violence can give the cover of self-defense, and also offer plausible deniability.
Defense attorney James Kolenich, who represents Kessler, Nathan Damigo, and Identity Evropa, wanted to know if other academics use the terms front stage and and back stage in referring to white supremacists. “They do,” said Simi, and listed several.
Kolenich asked if Simi was a member of antifa—”No”—and if Simi’s objective was to dismantle the alt-right. Simi compared his work to that of a cancer researcher and said, “Am I interested in helping prevent and intervene in violent white supremacy? Yes.”
Some of the most bizarre questioning came from Josh Smith, who represents Matthew Heimbach, Matthew Parrott, and the Traditionalist Worker Party. Smith interrupted and talked over Simi—and Judge Norman Moon. His questions veered to China, Israel, Singapore, and Hillary Clinton.
On the latter, Moon said, “Mr. Smith, your question makes no sense.”
Smith asked Simi, “Are you saying whites are not responsible for the most advancements in technology?”
“Is that a serious question?” replied Simi.
Pro se defendant Chris Cantwell wanted to know if critical race theory influenced Simi’s work.
“We’re not going down the road of critical race theory,” instructed Moon.
Cantwell, who earlier in the trial asked co-defendant Heimbach his favorite Holocaust joke, said, “When is a joke a joke?” In his questions about the offensive meme Azzmador posted, he used the n-word twice.
At one point, when Kaplan objected to the defense free-for-all, Cantwell, who is currently serving time for threatening to rape the wife of another neo-Nazi, said loudly, “I didn’t file a lawsuit about race.”
During Cantwell’s cross-examination of plaintiff April Muniz, who was on Fourth Street when Fields crashed into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer, he went into what has been dubbed the “bandana defense.”
He has questioned the plaintiffs present on Fourth Street, four of whom were seriously injured, about whether they saw people there wearing red or black bandanas, which can be associated with antifa, and he has replayed videos of the crash to its victims to point out bandana wearers.
He seemed excited when Muniz said she was wearing a bandana—a gray one. “It was a hot day,” she said. He wanted to know if people were wearing helmets, goggles, and black, also possible indicators of antifa, which Muniz testified she’d never heard of before August 12. “I was wearing black,” she said.
“Hot day, eh,” he said.
Kaplan said the plaintiffs will call the last of their witnesses Friday, except for Cantwell and Kessler, who will testify as defense witnesses to keep them from coming to the stand twice. The four-week, slow-moving trial is scheduled to end November 19, but there’s worry in the courthouse about whether that will happen.
Previous Sines v. Kessler coverage
Pre-trial: Their day in court: Major lawsuit against Unite the Right neo-Nazis heads to trial
Day one, 10/25: Trial kicks off with jury selection
Day two, 10/26: Desperately seeking jury
Day three, 10/27: Jury selection wraps up
Day four, 10/28: Plaintiffs and defendants make their opening arguments
Day five, 10/29: “I hear it in my nightmares,” says plaintiff Romero
Day six, 11/1: “I stopped being an outgoing, sociable person,” says plaintiff Willis
Day seven, 11/2: “Strike that”
Day eight, 11/3: Defendants fawn over Hitler
Day nine, 11/4: Quibbling about hate
Day 10, 11/5: League of the South takes the stand
Day 11, 11/8: “It gave me Nazi vibes”
Day 12, 11/9: False flags and missing evidence
Day 13, 11/10: “It was awful”