Dodge Challenger – C-VILLE Weekly

In brief: Tree huggers, get out of dodge (challenger), and more

Tree huggers

On an unseasonably warm December Sunday, Yoseph Asmellash, owner of Little River Christmas Trees, had dozens of Fraser and Douglas fir trees for sale in the parking lot of the Fashion Square Mall—one of many local spots for buying Christmas trees that pop up around the holidays. Asmellash, a native of Ethiopia who’s been selling trees for over 20 years, got into the business after working at a garden center during high school and college.

Business has been brisk, he says, and he orders new trees weekly–ever since the time, about 10 years ago, when he ended up with several hundred extra trees on his hands. He had to offer a buy-one-get-one-free sale (sometimes adding a third tree to the deal).

When he’s not selling trees, Asmellash, who lives in Arlington, runs several other seasonal businesses across Virginia, including pumpkin patches. In the off months, he operates a tax service.

Fir facts:

Asmellash orders about 800 trees per year for his spot at the Fashion Square Mall
His trees come from Whitetop, Virginia, and Sparta, North Carolina
According to the National Christmas Tree Association, the price of Christmas trees has gone up about 10 percent nationwide, due to limited supplies of Christmas trees—caused by hotter weather, too much rain, and the ripple effects of the 2008 recession that cut demand for trees (and led to less trees being planted)

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Quote of the week

“We should declare ourselves as a sanctuary city, as some other communities have done…We should declare ourselves a sanctuary city against monuments, statues, and memorials that glorify slaveholders, that lift up racists and rapists and traitors.” —Rev. Don Gathers, addressing City Council at its final meeting of the year.

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In brief

No go

Five months after James Fields used a gray Dodge Challenger to mow down dozens of people at the Unite the Right rally, killing Heather Heyer, the Charlottesville Police Department added a gray Dodge Challenger, which also featured “thin blue line” decals, to its official fleet. Though the car was purchased in January 2018, the department told C-VILLE last August that it had been “designed and purchased” well before the attack. Asked to explain this discrepancy, spokesman Tyler Hawn called it “a misunderstanding.” Last week, the city announced that the car has been removed from service in response to community feedback.

CPD purchased a Dodge Challenger in January 2018. PC: Staff Photo

Borer war

Charlottesville’s ash trees are dying, thanks to an infestation of the emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that arrived from Asia in 2002. The Charlottesville Tree Commission has mapped 107 ash trees in the city, and anticipates that 99 percent of them will succumb to the borer. Last week, representatives from the Tree Commission asked the Planning Commission for money to fight the bugs, but it remains to be seen if there will be enough space in the budget.

Tragic loss

The Charlottesville community mourns the death of St. Anne’s graduate Tessa Majors, who was fatally stabbed in a botched mugging in Manhattan’s Morningside Park on December 11. Majors, 18, was a freshman at Barnard College. A musician, Majors had just released a new album and had a series of local shows scheduled. A 13-year-old boy has been arrested in connection with her death.

Put it in “D”

It’s not just your imagination–Virginia really is home to some of the country’s worst drivers. According to a nationwide study by insurance company QuoteWizard, Virginia drivers earned a “D” grade, losing points for distracted driving and frequency of accidents. The worst city in our driving hellscape of a state, per the study, is Manassas.

Why are Charlottesville cops still driving this car?

Whether you were on Fourth Street that afternoon or not, you know the car: the low-slung gray muscle car with the distinctive brake lights that James Fields used to murder Heather Heyer and injure dozens of others on August 12, 2017.

From video footage and the shocking photograph that won local photographer Ryan Kelly a Pulitzer Prize, the car, a Dodge Challenger, became deeply associated with the terror of that day. Which is why one of our reporters was startled to see a strikingly similar car—another gray Dodge Challenger—with a Charlottesville Police Department decal, on a local street in June.

Police department spokesperson Tyler Hawn confirmed the car is part of the department’s fleet, adding that it was acquired well before August 2017.

Activist Rosia Parker says that when she saw the car, in the police department garage, it “gave me triggers” back to the attack. She raised the issue at a City Council meeting on July 16, 2018, but says she received no response.

A year later, on the way to James Fields’ sentencing, survivor Marcus Martin, who is pictured flying over the back of the car in Kelly’s photograph, said he had seen a similar car on the way to the courtroom and “it all came back.”

In reply to C-VILLE’s questions, Police Chief RaShall Brackney noted that the police department’s car is branded with the logo for the Special Olympics of Virginia Law Enforcement Torch Run and Polar Plunge events, and “this symbolic gesture is appreciated my many members of the local and state community.” Police participate in the events to raise money for athletes with special needs.

In addition to the Special Olympics logo, the roof of the car is emblazoned with what appears to be “thin blue line” iconography, which is commonly used to show support for law enforcement, but which some have argued is meant to show opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement. A thin blue line flag was among the flags carried by Unite the Right protesters at the August 12 rally.

“If the community feels threatened by the presence of this car, and request it be removed from our fleet, we would work toward an amicable solution,” Brackney said.