Tag: August 12

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Too broad: Judge dismisses August 11 charge against CVS shopper

John Miska was arrested for possessing the razor blades he'd just purchased at CVS. Photo Janis Jaquith

A judge today said the city’s lengthy list of prohibited items on the Downtown Mall over the August 12 anniversary weekend swept “far too broadly,” and he dismissed a charge against a disabled veterans activist for possession of razor blades that were purchased August 11 at CVS.

John Miska, 64, bought two cases of Arizona iced tea, a can of bug spray, lightbulbs, and a pack of razor blades, and was arrested outside CVS for possessing prohibited items in the downtown area, where access was limited to two entry points on Water Street. Citizens attempting to enter the mall had to have bags and wallets searched before they were allowed to enter—although Miska was able to open carry a firearm. Metal beverage cans, aerosols and razor blades were prohibited, although Miska was only charged for the blades.

Miska entered a not guilty plea and was represented by the Rutherford Institute, a local civil rights organization.

Virginia State Police Sergeant S.W. Johnson, one of the 700 state police in town for the weekend, testified that he’d been alerted to Miska’s plans to purchase the forbidden items because the vet “made certain statements about his intentions to go to CVS” to the checkpoint staff. Johnson stopped Miska when he came out of the store with his walker, which carried the cases of iced tea, and he said he could see the other alleged contraband in the plastic CVS bag.

“He said he had common items for household use,” said Johnson. “He said he likes tea.” Miska declined Johnson’s offer to help him take the items to his car, and the officer took him into custody, Johnson testified.

Other people on the mall were drinking out of cans in restaurant patio areas, but Johnson did not arrest them because they appeared to be “part of private establishments,” he said.

Judge Bob Downer ruled in favor of Miska’s motion to dismiss and seemed to take a dim view of the city’s ban of certain items while allowing businesses on the mall to sell those items, commenting, “If the city really wanted to prohibit these items, they should have shut down all the stores that sold them.” He also said the restrictions were “too much” and that the ban was too broad.

“This case—in which a dozen police swarmed a disabled veteran with a walker buying cans of iced tea and bug spray from a CVS—is far from the only example of a dysfunctional, excessive government that overreaches, overspends, and is completely out of sync with the spirit of the Constitution,” said constitutional attorney and Rutherford president John W. Whitehead.

Also heard in Charlottesville General District Court were five other cases of those arrested over the anniversary weekend.

Former C-VILLE Weekly contributor Toby Beard, who was charged with “obstruction of free passage” August 12 during a march from Washington Park to downtown, pleaded guilty to a lesser infraction of walking in the street when a sidewalk was available. He was given a $15 fine, which was suspended.

His attorney, Janice Redinger, said after the hearing that the commonwealth dropping the charge from a Class 1 misdemeanor to a traffic infraction “was an acknowledgement that no crime took place.”

Chloe Lubin was charged with assault and disorderly conduct, and was ordered to do 50 hours of community service by January 31 for each charge. An obstruction of justice charge was dropped, with the condition it could not be expunged, and a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon also was dismissed.

North Carolina resident Algenon Cain, who was charged with two counts of trespassing, did not appear in court. He was found guilty and fined $250 on the first count, with $200 suspended, and $250 on the second charge.

Veronica Fitzhugh was charged with misdemeanor assault and entered an Alford plea, which is a guilty plea that acknowledges the prosecution has enough evidence to convict but the defendant maintains her innocence. She was sentenced to complete 20 hours of community service by January 31.

Spotsylvania resident Martin Clevenger was charged with disorderly conduct following an encounter with Fitzhugh at Market Street Park. According to state trooper J.M. Hylton, who was standing behind a barricade in front of the Lee statue, Clevenger walked up to the statue and saluted.

“A female approached him and begin to scream and curse,” said Hylton. Clevenger “snapped and leaned over and shouted” at Fitzhugh.

Video showed Fitzhugh screaming “go home” and  “get the fuck out of my town” at Clevenger.

He replied multiple times, “If history is forgotten, you are bound to repeat it.” He also said that Fitzhugh was touching him and asked officers to arrest her. In the video, he stands saluting the statue while Fitzhugh continues to shout at him, until he suddenly turns to confront her, which, he testified, was because she insulted his father’s military service.

“I was there peacefully protesting,” said Clevenger. “You can see her spitting at me. That’s assault.” He said he acted in self-defense when she disparaged the “honor of my father.”

Downer said the case is one of the most difficult to decide because of the latitude required by the First Amendment. But he said  “the conduct of Ms. Fitzhugh certainly provoked” Clevenger’s reaction, and found Clevenger not guilty.

Outside the courthouse, anti-racist activists followed Clevenger into the Market Street Parking Garage and shouted at him and the police officers there. Clevenger sped out of the garage on a motorcycle.

Miska was screamed at with shouts of “fuck you racist” as he left the courthouse with his attorney, Elliot Harding.

Said Miska, “Perhaps we’ve shown the screaming meemies there is a way to protest government overreach within the system.”

Veteran John Miska was called a Nazi as he left the courthouse. Staff photo

Updated October 1 with comments from Whitehead, Redinger and Miska.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In brief: America’s Dad, Virginia’s tampons, A12’s price tag and more

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine stopped by York Place for a pizza party with UVA students. Eze Amos

New contender for America’s Dad?

Senator Tim Kaine stopped by his campaign office in York Place September 21 for a pizza party with nearly three dozen University of Virginia Democrats.

Supporters passed around campaign signs that said “America’s Dad,” although Kaine may have some competition for the title—a spokesman for Bill Cosby told reporters recently that Cosby is still America’s Dad, despite his conviction for sexual assault.

In an exclusive interview on the vital topic of “dad jokes,” Kaine confessed that he groaned when his staff introduced the signs during his 2016 vice presidential campaign. “I kind of found myself in the center of all these dad jokes. And I mean, this is a very dad thing to say, but until I was in the center of them, I didn’t know there was such a thing as a dad joke.”

Urban Dictionary defines a dad joke as an “indescribably cheesy” or dumb joke made by a father to his kids. “We’re in a business where people get called a lot of names, and being made fun of because of my dad quality? I’ll take that,” says Kaine.

Smells of pepperoni and cheese wafted through the air as Hillary Clinton’s former running mate also fielded questions about his favorite type of ’za.

“I will always have Canadian bacon, mushroom, and black olive if I can,” he said. “Not everybody has Canadian bacon. It was more popular back in the day, and with Trump in a trade war against Canada, I’m sure there’s no more Canadian bacon.”

Believe it or not, he was also there to talk politics. As was 5th District congressional candidate Leslie Cockburn, who was preaching to the choir when she said one of her top priorities is debt relief for folks with student loans.

Like his young constituents, Kaine said he believes in climate science, marriage equality, and reasonable rules to “stop the carnage of gun violence.”

“I feel like politics is a lot like a train that’s run away and we need to pull the emergency brake,” Kaine told the crowd of students. And when recruiting young supporters, he said he no longer just talks about the differences between Republicans and Democrats.

“It’s not just that there’s a difference between the two sides,” he says. “It’s that you make a difference.”

As for defeating opponent Corey Stewart? “I feel good about what I see, but we take nothing for granted.”

Quote of the week

“If someone chooses to visit a Virginia Department of Corrections inmate, he or she cannot have anything hidden inside a body cavity.”—Spokeswoman Lisa Kinney tells the AP why women can’t wear tampons or menstrual cups when visiting state prisons.

In brief

Tourism bureau slam

Adam Healey, interim executive director for the Charlottesville-Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau, called the agency a “weak marketer,” its messaging “confusing,” and its positioning “dusty” rather than modern, according to Allison Wrabel’s story in the Daily Progress. And he wants to bump the bureau’s advertising budget from around $400,000 to $6 million.

Weekend traffic fatalities

UVA engineering grad student Rouzbeh Rastgarkafshgarkolaei, 27, died on U.S. 29 in Culpeper around 4:50am September 23, when his 2006 Audi sideswiped a Dodge Caravan, ran off the road, and caught fire. Virginia State Police said speed was a factor. That same day, Mary Elizabeth Carter, 19, died when her Mazda crossed the center line in Louisa and struck a Ford F150. Police said she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.

Jowell Travis Legendre faces multiple charges. Charlottesville Police

Student assaulted, robbed

A UVA student was robbed and sexually assaulted around 9:30pm September 19 on the 500 block of 14th Street NW, city police said. Louisa resident Jowell Travis Legendre, 29, was arrested the next day and charged with object sexual penetration, forcible sodomy, robbery, grand larceny, and credit card larceny.

Well endowed

UVA’s endowment jumped almost $1 billion in the last fiscal year, from $8.6 billion to $9.5 billion. Even more impressive, the endowment has seen a 10.9 percent annual return over the past 20 years, according to COO Kristina Alimard.

Nuts wanted

The Virginia Department of Forestry is seeking acorns and nuts from 12 different species, mostly oaks, from state landowners. The department wants to plant them at its Augusta Forestry Center for tree seedlings.

 

 

Pricey preparations

While Jason Kessler was in D.C., Virginia State Police sent 700 officers to Charlottesville during the
August 12 anniversary weekend that brought out hundreds of anti-racist activists, students, and
mourners, but little to no opposition. The cost?

$3.1 million, according to VSP spokesperson Corinne Geller, who says the department has submitted the bill to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management for reimbursement. That number includes: $953,000 for equipment and vehicles,
and $885,000 in salaries (for officers who would have been working anyway). It does not include costs for Charlottesville, Albemarle, and UVA.

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The publicity argument: Motion to move Fields’ trial taken under advisement

Denise Lunsford represents James Fields, who's charged with driving his car into a crowd of protesters on August 12, killing Heather Heyer, and injuring many others.

In an August 30 motions hearing in Charlottesville Circuit Court, a judge heard arguments for why a three-week first-degree murder trial for the man charged with driving a Dodge Challenger into a crowd on Fourth Street last summer should be moved out of the city.

Defendant James Fields, who wore a black-and-white-striped jail jumpsuit and handcuffs, was attentive during the hearing. He scrawled a note on a yellow legal pad to his attorney, Denise Lunsford, who smiled when she read it, and patted him on the shoulder.

As evidence that there’s too much negative publicity surrounding his trial to seat a fair and impartial jury here, Lunsford submitted approximately 250 local news articles that reference Fields.

She told Judge Rick Moore that the articles said Heather Heyer, the woman killed during the car attack, “died because of white supremacy,” that she was “murdered,” that Fields is a “neo-Nazi,” who “came to kill,” and committed an act of “domestic terror.”

Moore said he hadn’t read all of the articles she submitted, “But what I have read is accurate, and it’s not inflammatory.”

Other submitted articles discuss the longstanding effect and trauma that August 12, 2017, has had on the community of 48,000 people.

Lunsford specifically referenced an August 8, 2018, C-VILLE Weekly story titled, “Telling the lion’s story: Charlottesville’s faith community employs activism to unite against supremacy.” In the article, Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Tom Gutherz noted the stress felt by members of the synagogue, which is located only a few blocks from courts where white supremacists—who often bring groups of like-minded friends along for support—have been tried throughout the year.

She also said the average local person could have trouble distinguishing Fields’ murder trial in circuit court from the hate crimes he’s been indicted on in federal court, and she pointed to the tenor of the press release announcing the federal indictments.

“At the Department of Justice, we remain resolute that hateful ideologies will not have the last word and that their adherents will not get away with violent crimes against those they target,” the June 27 press release said.

“Think about all that,” Lunsford told the judge.

Prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony said Lunsford has “very valid concerns,” but said most of her argument is based on speculation and not fact.

In trials for Jacob Goodwin and Alex Ramos, two men found guilty of malicious wounding for attacking DeAndre Harris in the Market Street Parking Garage on August 12, attorneys made similar motions to change venue, but Antony said they didn’t have trouble seating a jury for either case.

Attorneys will select a 12-person jury from a pool of 360 people for the Fields trial, instead of the usual pool of 40-60 people. And like in the cases of Goodwin and Ramos, they’re planning to send each potential juror a questionnaire beforehand, to weed out any jurors with biases that they can’t set aside for the trial.

Judge Moore decided to follow the prosecutor’s recommendation and take the motion to change venue under advisement. The attorneys will attempt to seat a jury when Fields’ trial begins November 27, and if it proves impossible, Moore will again consider moving the trial.

The attorneys also entered three consent orders at the hearing.

The first asked the judge for permission not to file documents related to subpoenaed witnesses until November 26—the evening before the trial is set to begin—in order to keep witness names and information private, so media, or anyone else, can’t reach out to them beforehand.

The second consent order was to bar “signs, tokens, and insignia” in support of Fields or the victims from the courtroom during the trial, so as to not influence the jury, and the third was to allow Lunsford an additional $2,000 to hire someone to help review potential jurors.

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In brief: Crime report, coach gets caught, dead body bamboozle and more

It’s about crime

The Albemarle County Police Department released its annual crime report for 2017 in June, and while we already published some of the most striking statistics, here’s what else caught our eye.

Between the years of 2016 and 2017, crimes rates increased in all but one category. The largest increases were in homicide and forcible rape, whose rates increased by a whopping 500 percent and 93 percent, respectively. The exception was robbery, which decreased by more than 50 percent.

  • 1,805 larcenies, 1.4 percent increase
  • 1,305 property crimes, 2.3 percent increase
  • 146 breaking and enterings, 0.7 percent increase
  • 74 stolen motor vehicles, 21.3 percent increase
  • 37 aggravated assaults, 9 percent increase
  • 27 forcible rapes, 93 percent increase
  • 10 robberies, 52 percent decrease
  • 6 homicides, 500 percent increase

Disorderly conduct was the most common call for service.

  • Disorderly Conduct: 1,223 calls
  • Mental Health: 575 calls
  • Noise Complaint: 560 calls
  • Drug Offenses: 529 calls
  • Trespassing: 427 calls
  • Vandalism: 403 calls
  • Domestic Assault: 321 calls
  • Shots Fired: 273 calls
  • DUI: 174 calls
  • DIP: 163 calls
  • Littering: 12 calls

The report’s demographic breakdown found that whites make up two-thirds of the arrests in the county.

  • White: 66.2 percent
  • Black: 32.3 percent
  • Asian or Pacific Islander: 0.8 percent
  • Unknown: 0.7 percent
  • American Indian or Alaskan Native: 0.1 percent

Suicide stats

The county crime report included a new section for mental health. In 2017, Albemarle County Police received 575 mental-health-related calls, a 7 percent increase from the previous year. In 2015, there was a record 24 percent increase from the previous year. Deaths by suicide have decreased slightly over the past half-decade.

2013

  • Attempted: 18
  • Completed: 12

2014

  • Attempted: 17
  • Completed: 13

2015

  • Attempted: 10
  • Completed: 15

2016

  • Attempted: 18
  • Completed: 6

2017

  • Attempted: 11
  • Completed: 11

We’ve been duped

A human figure wrapped in cloth, tightly bound at the neck and feet and dumped at the McIntire Recycling Center over the weekend gave recyclers a scare—until police responded to the scene and cut the cloth to reveal a mannequin. Police are still investigating the body bamboozle.

WillowTree makes moves

Governor Ralph Northam dropped by August 27 to announce that WillowTree will invest approximately $20 million in an expansion and relocation to the old Woolen Mills factory, which will create more than 200 jobs. The new location will allow the 276-employee company to grow to 500, and the move is expected to be completed by the end of next year.

Coach gets caught

A Monticello High School assistant football and girls’ basketball coach has been placed on administrative leave following his August 24 arrest for allegedly sending “inappropriate electronic communications” to a juvenile. George “Trae” Payne III is also a teacher’s aide at the school.

 

Change of venue

Attorneys for James Fields say he won’t be able to get a fair trial this November in the same town where he allegedly rammed his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of anti-racist activists, killing one of them and injuring many. They’ve asked to move his three-week, first-degree murder trial elsewhere, or bring in out-of-town jurors. A judge is expected to rule on the motion August 30.

Like a high school paper

Liberty University now requires its student newspaper, the Liberty Champion, to get approval from two to three administrators before publishing a story. Bruce Kirk, the school’s communications dean, told student reporters their job was to protect Liberty’s reputation and image, according to a story in the World magazine.

Heaphy’s new job

Tim Heaphy. Photo by Eze Amos

Former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy, a current Hunton & Williams partner who was hired to conduct the controversial independent review of how the city managed last year’s white supremacist events, will now have another notch on his resume. When UVA Counsel Roscoe Roberts retires at the end of the month, Heaphy, a UVA School of Law alumni, will take his place.

Quote of the week:

“We ain’t mad at you Spike Lee. We just want you to do the right thing.” —Unnamed young people in an open letter to Spike Lee, saying he used their images from the August 12 attack in his movie, BlacKkKlansman, without permission. They want him to donate $219,000 to fight white supremacy.

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YouTuber wants access to car attack videos 

When James Fields allegedly drove his car into the crowd on Fourth Street, he also smashed into a Toyota Camry. Photo by Eze Amos

In an August 21 hearing in Charlottesville Circuit Court, Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania took an unusual seat—in the defendant’s chair—with his files resting on a table on the left side of the room, while another man took Platania’s usual seat on the right.

William Evans, a Fairfax attorney representing himself, is suing the commonwealth’s attorney for access to two videos of the August 12, 2017, car attack that the prosecution showed in an open courtroom at driver James Fields’ preliminary hearing in December, then submitted as evidence, and removed from the public file.

“It’s really one of the more unusual cases I’ve ever been involved in,” said Judge Rick Moore at the hearing. Evans had submitted approximately 20 relevant cases for the judge to read, and Moore said from the 10 he scoured in full, he was introduced to issues and points of law he was never aware of.

William Evans

Evans has argued that, even in a criminal trial, videos that have been shown to the public in a courtroom, with their contents reported on by multiple news outlets, should be available for anyone who wishes to see them. The two specific videos he’s after are Virginia State Police helicopter footage of Fields plowing his car into dozens of counterprotesters, and surveillance video of the incident from Red Pump Kitchen on Fourth Street.

Evans, who seems to have his own theory of what happened before and during that attack in Charlottesville (according to videos posted on his YouTube channel called SonofNewo), submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the city and to Platania to view the videos shown in court, and both were denied. He says the reports he’s read of the videos’ content are contradictory.

Moore told Evans that FOIA exemptions in criminal cases often exist for “public welfare and justice…not just because we don’t want you messing in our papers.”

Evans says all he’s asking to see are portions of videos already shown in an open court, which the prosecution relied on as evidence.

“That’s all you’re asking to see?” asked the judge. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted to see,” said Evans, who also sued the city in a separate suit, over the same two videos.

The videos aren’t currently in the file for seemingly unknown reasons, though it was disclosed that assistant prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony remembers making a verbal motion to withdraw the videos at the end of the December preliminary hearing, which isn’t documented in the official court transcript.

In felony cases certified to the grand jury, Moore said all documents are sent to the clerk of the respective circuit court, unless there’s a decision to seal the record. But Evans says there is no record of an order to seal the evidence.

On why the commonwealth won’t just turn over the videos, Platania says, “When balancing public access to information with a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial by an impartial jury, this office will always err on the side of non-disclosure unless otherwise directed by a court of competent jurisdiction.”

The judge granted Evans’ motion to intervene in the Fields’ trial and to argue for the public’s right to access those two videos.

As they ran out of time and Evans agreed to appear at the October docket call to set another date to continue, the judge pondered the importance of granting Evans and the rest of the community a chance to see the videos.

“What is the harm of the public not seeing a 13th version of this?” Moore said. “What is the public really going to care about this?”

Evans said he felt like the hearing went well.

He added, “Really, this is all kind of plowing new ground in terms of Virginia FOIA law.”

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‘Just evil:’ Men sentenced in August 12 parking garage beating

White nationalists chased DeAndre Harris into the Market Street Parking Garage and beat him with pieces of the wooden barricades they tore down. (Credit Image: © Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press)

The two young men handed lengthy prison sentences last week for their involvement in the August 12, 2017, brutal parking garage beating of DeAndre Harris sat in stark contrast to one another in Charlottesville Circuit Court.

One’s remorse was hard to miss. Jacob Goodwin, the Arkansas man who can be seen in videos wearing full tactical gear and kicking Harris multiple times as he lay immobile in the Market Street Parking Garage, hung his head for most of his August 23 hearing.

Last summer, a group of white nationalists chased Harris into the parking garage, surrounding him and striking him with their homemade weapons, fists, and feet. They knocked him to the ground at least twice, and continued to beat him as he struggled to get up.

Jacob Goodwin

Goodwin had tears in his eyes as Judge Rick Moore handed down a 10-year sentence with two years suspended. He turned to look at his mother, who had collapsed into his father’s lap, and her muffled sobs could be heard throughout the courtroom.

The jury that found Goodwin guilty of malicious wounding in May recommended the 10-year sentence, but suggested that some time be suspended. Prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony, who asked the judge to suspend no more than two years, said the jury didn’t have the benefit of nearly 20 letters from friends and family that were sent on Goodwin’s behalf.

The contents of the letters were not discussed, but they apparently described a different man than the one seen in the August 12 videotapes—a white man with a shield and goggles, who also wore a pin that said “88,” code for “Heil Hitler,” as he beat a bloodied black man at the largest gathering of white supremacists in recent history.

“[This] is probably him on his worst day,” Antony said. “We are dealing with a snapshot of Mr. Goodwin’s life.”

Judge Moore said he hoped so, and called it one of the most “brutal, one-sided beatings” he’d ever seen. As for the good man Goodwin was shown to be in the letters Moore received, the judge said, “How does somebody who’s this person become the person I saw on the video?”

Before Goodwin was told he’d serve eight years, he told the court he didn’t get the chance to apologize during his trial.

“I’m truly, genuinely sorry,” he said. “I can’t even imagine the aftermath of what happened—how this has affected [Harris’] life.”

Antony said Harris declined to submit a victim impact statement.

“He has been working over the past several months on putting this matter behind him,” she said. Echoed the judge, “Mr. Harris may get over his physical injuries. I don’t know that he’ll ever get over his emotional or psychological injuries.”

Later that day, an apology that came from another man who participated in the beating wasn’t as sincere.

Alex Ramos’ face was blank as Moore grappled with how much prison time to impose.

Alex Ramos, pictured with his right fist raised, and Jacob Goodwin, pictured carrying a shield.

In viral videos, the man who came to the Unite the Right rally from Georgia can be seen wearing a red Make America Great Again hat and a white tank top as he throws one of the last punches in the Market Street Parking Garage melee.

The judge stressed that Ramos didn’t get involved until Harris was already on the ground, and the beating was almost over.

“It’s like he had to interject himself when the person was already beat to pieces,” Moore said. “It’s inhumane.”

Alex Ramos

He decided on a six-year sentence for Ramos, which the jury recommended when they also found him guilty of malicious wounding in May, and said it was easier to decide in this case than in Goodwin’s or that of Richard Preston, the KKK imperial wizard he sentenced two days prior to four years in prison for firing a gun within 1,000 feet of a school on August 12, 2017 (see article on p. 13).

When Ramos took the witness stand, his defense attorney, Jake Joyce, asked him about a couple of Facebook posts he made after the Unite the Right rally, in which Ramos claimed victory, and said of the beating: “We stomped ass. Getting some was fucking fun.”

“I feel pretty embarrassed about it,” Ramos told the judge.

His attorney also noted the “elephant in the room:” Ramos is Hispanic, and not a white nationalist. Ramos described himself as a “conservative” and said he’s always been “somewhat of an outcast” at right-wing events.

The judge said Ramos fought as if he was trying to prove himself or impress somebody.

As for ganging up on Harris in the parking lot, Ramos said, “I made a wrong judgment call…I feel pretty bad. I kinda wish I could apologize to Mr. Harris.”

When advocating for Ramos to serve the full six-year sentence, Antony said he “might still need some time to think.”

Seemingly changing his demeanor just moments before his official sentence was handed down, Ramos said, “I am really sorry.”

“You can spend the rest of your life thinking about that,” the judge said. “It’s just evil.”

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Opinion

History matters: ‘Something wicked this way comes’

After seeing the Charlottesville Players Guild’s Black Mac, A UVA music professor was reminded of the importance of creative outlets for all children, no matter the color of their skin. Photo by Tristan Williams

By Bonnie Gordon

For almost two years, Charlottesville has felt like Act IV, Scene 1 of Macbeth. So when I saw Black Mac, a radically black take on Shakespeare’s play about the violent hauntings of the past, it felt like a staging of collective memory, trauma, power, and space.

Directed by 23-year-old black Oberlin student Ti Ames, the production, with 11 black actors and actresses, put in counterpoint black vernacular and Shakespearean language.

Here in #Charlottesville, before the anniversary of the violent Unite the Right rally, it was impossible not to witness Black Mac and think that, for all his theatrical and operatic knowledge, Richard Spencer (a music major during his time at UVA who worked in German opera houses) could only borrow props, words, and gestures from the distant past. His attempt at staging Charlottesville was hollow and unoriginal. Black Mac’s mostly very young cast and their audience have, indeed, replaced you.

And it was hard not to think that Jason Kessler sounds like Macbeth with a life that is a “tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury / signifying nothing.”

Missing, all too often from national media photos and stories about Charlottesville and of bigotry and evil (because that’s what it is) are stories of resistance, of powerful black institutions, and of creative power.

That’s the story of this production, and especially the place where it occurred, which insists that history matters not just when it’s violent and familiar, but also when it’s quiet and sustained—a long tone.

Black Mac occurred in the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, a space that has been a spiritual center for the African American community here for more than 125 years and is one of the few buildings that remained standing after the city demolished a thriving black community called Vinegar Hill.

It’s easy these days to know that in 1924 the Robert E. Lee statue (which last year’s rally was never about) was dedicated in a ceremony to the Confederate Lost Cause, photographs of which eerily resemble the assemblages of white nationalists we saw here last year. But more importantly in 1924, black Charlottesville parents petitioned the school board for a black high school.

While the Jefferson School had had a theater program from 1895 through the 1950s, the arts in Charlottesville remain a devastatingly segregated arena, and it starts with our children.

The night I saw Black Mac, the audience was small—38 people. But many of those people have worked to make sure all kids in this racist town have access to creative practice. These people and the institutions they run may not make the national news, but they matter.

“Something wicked this way comes.” If wicked means bad and violent, then the wicked something comes from the horrific hate unleashed by Donald Trump. Many writers have already had fun with Trump as Macbeth, a guy whose heinous narcissistic ambitions never let him admit defeat or fear even when the evidence shows otherwise. “I cannot taint with fear,” says MacTrump.

Macbeth takes advice from witches who stir up a mixture of paranoia and hate of the other that knows no bounds. Trump stirs up Central American kids in detention centers. He hates and fears the other so much that apparently he doesn’t mind killing its young.

But if “wicked” is something linked to magic, then we can find here and in many other spaces amazing powers of resistance and resilience. We saw that kind of wicked on this surreal anniversary weekend when the white nationalist theater of hate was replaced by a police state theater of the absurd.

Bonnie Gordon is a music professor at UVA.

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‘Martial law’: Officials say 1,000 cops necessary, searches ‘consensual’

To enter the Downtown Mall, citizens had to submit to a search of purses and wallets. Police say that was “consensual.” Photo Eze Amos

The August 12 weekend passed with no loss of life or serious injury, but many Charlottesville residents were not reassured by the show of police force and the restrictions on pedestrian access to the Downtown Mall that were announced a couple of days before they went into effect.

The Virginia State Police provided 700 officers, and the total number of cops on hand was around 1,000, according to officials.

“Last year, I was afraid of the Nazis,” says Black Lives Matter organizer and UVA professor Lisa Woolfork. “This year, I’m afraid of the police.”

Civil rights attorneys blasted the decision to limit pedestrian access to the mall to two entry points on Water Street—and that was before everyone entering had to submit to a search of bags and wallets.

“You wonder why some people in our community distrust you,” writes Jeff Fogel in an email to city officials. The decision to withhold notice of the mall lockdown “smacks of deception, manipulation, and lies,” he says.

Rutherford Institute founder John Whitehead criticizes the lack of transparency and disclosure of a specific threat before restricting citizens’ ability to move freely. “To me it looks like martial law,” says Whitehead. “It creates a police state.”

At an August 13 press conference, public safety officials continued to refuse to answer whether there had been credible threats that warranted having 1,000 cops on hand.

“We had very large crowds here,” says Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney. “We had to plan for the variable of the unknown”—even if it was pretty clear the alt-right wasn’t coming.

Virginia State Police Superintendent Gary Settle says, “Some intelligence that I can’t reveal in a public forum caused us to make certain decisions and err on the side of caution.”

Brackney says the last-minute announcement of restricted mall access was to keep those points “close to the chest” and not reveal vulnerabilities to people who were surveilling social media for entry points into the controlled area.

On August 8, she said that citizens would not be subjected to searches unless there was reason to believe they had something that was on the lengthy list of prohibited items, including sticks, aerosol sprays, and knives. But on August 11, everyone who wanted to go to the mall had to submit to a search of bags and wallets.

Says Brackney, “Everyone actually was given the option. There was no one that was searched that was not consensual. Everyone was allowed in. It was their items that were not allowed in.”

City councilors C-VILLE talked to were vague about what they knew about the mall lockdown. “I don’t think we’re allowed to talk about that,” says Wes Bellamy. Vice-Mayor Heather Hill says she knew there would be restrictions, but didn’t know exactly what they were.

Even after mourners had paid their respects on Heather Heyer Way, state police continued to block Water Street and tensions remained high. Staff photo

Some saw the measures as an insult and over-compensation for last year’s deadly rally.

“I feel violated,” says activist Rosia Parker. “I feel completely violated. The presence we have here now should have been here last year.

She adds, “They’re protecting property, not people.”

Parker also objects to being searched to walk on the Downtown Mall, and seeing police officers in riot gear protecting the Lee statue.

“I think it made things more tense,” says UVA prof and activist Jalane Schmidt. “The solution to last summer is not over policing.”

She notes that initially officials said they were not going to check bags, and then ended up searching even wallets. “We’re under martial law in all but name,” she says.

Some made a point of braving the downtown hassles and came to support businesses there, like Kat Imhoff, Montpelier president and CEO. “I thought the police did a pretty good job,” she says. “A couple of times we left the barricaded area and had to go all the way around to get back in.”

Her friend, Dorothy Carney, compares the security measures to the Transportation Security Administration after 9-11. “It felt like an overreaction because nothing was shared about threats.”

The appearance of riot police did not did not put protesters at ease at the UVA student rally Saturday night. Eze Amos

Carney attended the student rally Saturday night and said it was really peaceful around Brooks Hall until about 100 cops in riot gear came marching in. That’s about the point Imhoff arrived, and she says, “You can see how quickly things can fall apart.”

Both Carney and Imhoff say cops were a lot friendlier this year than last, when they would not make eye contact.

“I had a lot of police smiling at me with my Black Lives Matter T-shirt on,” says Carney.

One other thing struck her: “You have a security checkpoint but you’re still allowing guns in. We need to change those laws.”

City Council is holding a community listening session from 6 to 8pm Tuesday at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center.

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Anniversary weekend ends peacefully, with sad remembrances

Susan Bro hugs Courtney Commander, who was with her friend Heather Heyer when she was killed on Fourth Street August 12, 2017. staff photo

A year after white supremacists and neo-Nazis marched with torches through UVA and violent clashes in the streets left one woman dead and dozens injured, it was with some trepidation that locals commemorated August 11 and 12. The weekend ended without serious injury and with a handful of arrests on misdemeanor charges.

By late Sunday afternoon, the barricades surrounding downtown Charlottesville, which some said had put the city under “martial law,” were coming down, and the 700 Virginia State Police began heading home.

While sightings of hate group members were rare, more than 1,000 police in town created another sort of tension. A student demonstration planned in front of the Rotunda Saturday night abruptly changed course because of layers of restrictions, barricades and cops, and became a loop around university neighborhoods.

And a march from a morning Washington Park remembrance of last year’s tragedy to Fourth Street, where a driver plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring many more, became heated when police blocked access to the Downtown Mall from Water Street, where entrance already was restricted to First Street and Second Street SE.

Those entry spots had cops lined up forming a humans-on-bikes barricade there, and marchers continued down to Fourth, where police refused to let them enter. After some heated moments and negotiations by activist Don Gathers, the band of more than 100 marchers split and some went back to Second Street SE to enter the mall through the checkpoint and commemorate the tragedy that occurred on Fourth Street.

Heyer’s mother Susan Bro came with flowers both for her daughter and for the two Virginia State Police officers—Jay Cullen and Berke Bates—who died in a helicopter crash August 12.

“This is not all about Heather,” said Bro. “Oh my dear heavens. There were so many people who were wounded that day. They’re still suffering, still injured. There’s so much healing to do. We have a huge racial problem in our city and our country and we’ve got to fix that, or we’ll be back here.”

Bro brought two red roses for the downed officers, and purple stock for her daughter, which she laid on a memorial of flowers on the sidewalk.

And Bro hugged many of the people who were there August 12 a year ago, including Heyer’s friends Courtney Commander, Marissa Blair and Marcus Martin, the latter captured in Ryan Kelly’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph, hurtling up in the air behind James Fields’ car.

Marcus Martin, a year after being thrown over the top of James Fields’ car, says his wife, the former Marissa Blair, has to walk by the spot every day. staff photo

And as people were dispersing, another standoff occurred with helmeted state police in the intersection of Water and Fourth streets.

Observing from the mall was Brian Moran, Virginia secretary of public safety, who was here a year ago and watched from the sixth floor of the Wells Fargo building the violent clashes on Market Street below, and famously compared the sporadic skirmishes to a hockey match.

Moran said he counted the weekend a success with a minimum number of arrests. “I couldn’t be prouder of these officers,” he said. “We said it wouldn’t happen again. The city welcomed our resources.”

As he said that, shouts could be heard down Fourth Street, and when asked what was going on, he said, “They’re yelling at police. Last year a woman got killed when protesters took to the streets. We made sure there was no traffic this time. Police are trying to protect the protesters and they got yelled at.”

Virginia Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran says one of police goals was to block streets to protect protesters from getting mowed down. Staff photo

Moran noted that Jason Kessler, organizer of last year’s deadly Unite the Right rally, had just boarded a Metro in Vienna to go the sequel event he was having in Washington, and Moran seemed relieved to have him out of the state. UTR2 reportedly drew around two dozen supporters and thousands of counterprotesters.

Four arrests had been made by 4pm Sunday. Tobias Beard, 42, a former C-Ville Weekly contributor, was charged with obstruction of free passage when police say at around 11:04am, he deliberately positioned himself in front of police motorcycle units that were attempting to provide safe passage for a group of demonstrators in the area of Preston Avenue and Eighth Street. He was released on a summons.

Activist Veronica Fitzhugh, 40, and Martin Clevenger, 29, of Spotsylvania were each charged with one count of disorderly conduct when Clevenger saluted the Lee statue in Market Street Park at 11:25am. A small group gathered around him and a verbal altercation between Fitzhugh and Clevenger became physical, according to police. Both were released on a summons.

And Chloe J. Lubin, 29, of Portland, Maine, was arrested by Virginia State Police on four misdemeanor charges: assault and battery, disorderly conduct, obstruction of justice and possession of a concealed weapon. At approximately 2:10pm, a state trooper observed Lubin spit in the face of a demonstrator in the area of Fourth and Water streets. As the trooper attempted to take her into custody, she clung to another demonstrator. Upon her arrest, she was found to be in possession of a metal baton, say police. She was released on an unsecured bond.

 

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Gun-carrying vet arrested for scraper blades

John Miska was arrested for possessing the razor blades he'd just purchased at CVS. Photo Janis Jaquith

John Miska frequently shops on the Downtown Mall, especially when CVS has two-for-one sales on cases of Arizona iced tea. Today, he ran afoul of the city’s list of prohibited items after he made his purchases, and was arrested for possessing the single edge blades he bought for his ice scraper.

Miska, 64, says he was both open- and concealed-carrying handguns, which are not prohibited during the Downtown Mall lockdown that limits pedestrian access and requires a search of purses, bags and backpacks belonging to those who wish to enter the mall.

“I clear the checkpoint, I’m Second Amendment friendly, I go into the store and make legal purchases,” says Miska. A police officer picked up his bag and asked to search it, he says. “I didn’t give him permission to search. He did it anyway.”

The list of prohibited items in the city during the August 10-12 weekend includes metal beverage cans, aerosol cans and razors, but Miska says he was not charged for possessing the two cases of canned green tea and mango iced tea, nor was he charged for possessing the bug spray he purchased.

He questions why businesses were allowed to sell the banned items and says while he was getting arrested, he saw a woman at a cafe drinking a beer out of a glass bottle, which is also a prohibited item. “They didn’t arrest her,” he says.

Miska, who is a disabled veteran, says he cut his knees and arms while police “were trying to stuff me into a paddy wagon too small for a disabled person.”

More injurious, he says, are the “hypocrisy and sheer stupidity of what they’re doing downtown.”

Says Miska, “I was challenging the authority of the director of public safety, the governor and the new city manager that they could abrogate my civil rights when there was no known threat. There was no Nazi demonstration, yet they turned downtown into a no-go zone. The Supreme Court says in public, a citizen has a right of free passage.”

City spokesman Brian Wheeler says, “People entering a store within the security area would have already been through an access point and been informed about the prohibited item restrictions.”

After three hours, Miska was released with a notice that he would be considered a trespasser if he appeared in the restricted downtown area before 6am Monday and with a class 4 misdemeanor arrest for failure to comply.

Miska, who on August 23 of last year attempted to remove a shroud that was placed over the Robert E. Lee statue in Market Street Park, knows it could have been worse. “They could have charged me with 48 counts of having soda cans,” he says.

Also arrested was Algenon Franklin Cain, 28, of Red Springs, North Carolina, for trespassing on two separate occasions. He’s being held without bond. And William Erbie Hawkins Jr., 53, of Amelia, was arrested for being drunk in public after a Virginia State Police officer noticed him walking unsteadily and gave him a field sobriety test, according to a press release issued by the City of Charlottesville.