Tag: KKK

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In brief: Get off the tracks, a Klansman’s plea and and a misidentified racist

Photo: Skycladap.com

See tracks? Think train

That’s advice from Dave Dixon, the safety and compliance supervisor of the Buckingham Branch Railroad, who notes the national increase of railroad crossing fatalities this year.

One of them happened here. An Amtrak carrying GOP congressmen smashed into a garbage truck on Crozet
train tracks in January, killing 28-year-old truck passenger Christopher Foley.

In an increased effort to educate drivers, Dixon offers advice for what to do if your car gets stuck on the crossing:

1. Evacuate the car and get away from the tracks.

2. Call the number on the blue sign at the crossing, not 911.

3. If a train approaches, run toward the train at a 45-degree angle and away from the track.

4. Don’t run down track, where the train could knock the vehicle into you.

Other tips:

  • Don’t drive around the gates.
  • Never try to “beat a train.”
  • At private crossings without gates, stop, look and listen before crossing.
  • Before crossing, be sure there’s enough room on the other side to safely clear the tracks.
  • If the gates are down while you’re on the crossing, drive through the gate. It’s designed to break away.
  • Report any malfunctioning gates, lights or other problems to the number on the blue sign.

Preston pleads

Courtesy of an ACLU video

An imperial wizard of Baltimore’s Confederate White Knights of the KKK, who was charged with firing a gun within 1,000 feet of a school at the Unite the Right rally, pleaded no contest May 5, just one day before his trial was scheduled to begin. Richard Preston was aiming his gun at Corey Long, who pointed a homemade flamethrower at the Klansman in a photo that went viral.

High-paying jobs

Ralph Northam

Governor Ralph Northam was in town May 2 to tout CoConstruct, a web-based company in Albemarle that helps custom homebuilders and remodelers manage their projects, and its plans to expand its IT ops and hire 69 new employees, some of whom will earn over $100,000. Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball called Charlottesville the “Camelot of Virginia.”

Northam noncommittal on Soering

In his second visit to Albemarle County in five days, Northam was at the Virginia Humanities’ folklife showcase when WVTF’s Sandy Hausman asked him about the pardon petition for Jens Soering amid increased calls from law enforcement supporting Soering’s innocence. Northam said he will stand by the decision of the parole board, which has denied parole 13 times.

Sage Smith episode

DaShad “Sage” Smith

Charlottesville police are still looking for leads in the homicide of Smith, who was last seen November 20, 2012. The disappearance is the subject of an episode on the Investigation Discovery channel show “Disappeared.” “Born this Way” airs at 7pm May 9. Police also seek information on the whereabouts of Erik McFadden, who was supposed to meet Smith the day of her disappearance.

Greene official charged

Larry Snow, Greene County commissioner of revenue, was charged with four felonies for use of trickery to obtain information stemming from a DMV investigation, according to the Greene County Record. Snow, 69, was first elected in 1987. In 2010, he was convicted of practicing law without a license, a misdemeanor.

Bad babysitter

Yowell-Rohm

Kathy Yowell-Rohm pleaded guilty to felony cruelty or injury to a child and operating a home daycare without a license after police found 16 children—most with seriously dirty diapers—from a few months old to age 4 in her home last December. She also pleaded guilty to assaulting an EMT in a parking lot at the November 24 UVA-Virginia Tech football game.

Terrys end treestand-off

Mother Red Terry, 61, and daughter Minor Terry, 30, came down May 5 from the trees on their property near Roanoke where they’d been camped since April 2 to protest the Mountain Valley Pipeline after a federal judge found them in contempt and said she’d start fining the Terrys for every day they defied her order.

Quote of the Week

“Out in the fresh air and sunshine, he could just have walked away.” —Judge Rick Moore at the trial of Alex Michael Ramos, who was convicted of the malicious wounding of DeAndre Harris.

Misidentified racist

Don Blankenship, Larry Sabato and MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell

It’s always best if the offended has a sense of humor.

A Huffington Post Instagram account called @huffpostasianvoices posted a photo of UVA’s Larry Sabato along with a story called, “GOP Senate Candidate: ‘Chinaperson’ Isn’t Racist,” referring to Don Blankenship, the West Virginian who recently used the racial slur, and who CNN editor Chris Cillizza has called “the worst candidate in America.”

Sabato did appear in an interview for the story, and on Twitter, he said, “After a loyal former student alerted me to the photo mix up, we reported it and it was quickly corrected.”

Blankenship isn’t his only doppelgänger. Two years ago, reporter Megyn Kelly noted that Sabato looks strikingly similar to the MyPillow infomercial salesman.

Tweeted the founder and director of the university’s Center for Politics, “After all, Don Blankenship, MyPillow guy and I all have a mustache, and everyone knows all mustachioed men look alike.”

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Guilty: First August 12 parking garage beater convicted

Jacob Goodwin, one of four men charged in the beating of DeAndre Harris August 12, was found guilty of malicious wounding. Charlottesville police

 

A Charlottesville jury decided May 1 that a man from Ward, Arkansas, who took part in a brutal beatdown of a local black man in the Market Street Parking Garage on August 12, was guilty of malicious wounding, potentially setting the bar for three other assailants accused of the same crime in the same incident, and who are set to go on trial in the very near future.

In videos from the Unite the Right rally that have since been viewed tens of thousands of times, Jacob Goodwin can be seen wearing all black tactical gear, a helmet, goggles, and two pins—one that said “88,” or code for “Heil Hitler,” and one with the logo of the Traditionalist Worker Party—and carrying a shield when kicking DeAndre Harris multiple times among a gaggle of other white supremacists.

Jurors were visibly disturbed while watching.

“He has yet to express any regret for his actions that day,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania, when asking the jury to consider a jail sentence recommendation. “And I would submit he has none.”

The man identified as a self-described white rights activist in an NBC documentary sat in court wearing a suit and tie and with a long, brown braided ponytail. During his testimony, he said he thought he was being attacked by Harris, and he was using his feet to defend himself.

“To be honest, I was terrified,” he said, adding that he thought he’d be sent to the hospital “terribly hurt,” or that he might even “perish.”

The jury of nine women and three men didn’t buy it, and they recommended giving Goodwin a 10-year sentence with perhaps some time suspended, a $25,000 fine and empathy training. Judge Rick Moore set an official sentencing for August 23.

Goodwin’s mother had her head in her hands when defense attorney Elmer Woodard wrapped up his closing argument, in which he insisted that Goodwin was legally allowed to defend himself from a perceived threat, which protects the Arkansas man from being convicted of malicious wounding. For that specific charge, a prosecutor must show an attempt to kill, maim or disable, or evidence of ill will or spite, according to the attorneys.

“They want you to convict this man because he’s a white man and DeAndre’s a black man,” Woodard said to the jury. The white man’s parents and a handful of other supporters, including Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler, were present for the two-day trial.

So were community members who have aggressively praised Harris for his fight against white supremacy that day in August, and who demanded that Platania drop a malicious wounding charge that Harris was initially given from the event, when he allegedly bashed a man in the head with a Maglite moments before he was beaten to the ground.

Harris’ charge was amended to assault and he was acquitted in Charlottesville General District Court in March.

Woodard argued that while his client was wearing armor, the Maglite and towel Harris carried were the real weapons, and that the man beaten by white supremacists was the true aggressor.

“Body armor’s a defensive thing,” said Woodard. “Nobody ever got beaten to death with body armor.”

And while the defense attorney argued several times that Harris’ most significant injuries, such as the head laceration that required eight stitches, were a result of the other men involved and not Goodwin, Nina-Alice Antony, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney, said they were acting in concert.

“Each person is responsible, not just for his specific action, but the action of the group,” she said, adding that concert of action can happen in an instant, even between people who are unknown to each other. “You don’t have to have a handshake agreement before that.”

The three other men charged with malicious wounding in the parking garage beatdown are Alex Ramos, Daniel Borden and Tyler Watkins Davis. Ramos goes on trial today.

Woodardisms

Attorney Elmer Woodard. Photo Natalie Jacobsen

This Blairs, Virginia, attorney was largely unknown in the Charlottesville area until he began representing a bevy of white supremacists with Unite the Right-related charges, including Jacob Goodwin, “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell and Richard Preston, the KKK leader charged with firing his gun on August 12. Now he’s one of the most talked about defenders in town. Here’s what he had to say at Goodwin’s May 1 trial:

”Gravity applies to DeAndre just like it applies to you and me.”

—on why Harris didn’t fall back down, but rather stood up after the prosecutor argued that Goodwin kicked him so hard that he lifted off the ground

“Why DeAndre, you have upset me.”

—on what Goodwin would have said if he truly felt anger, and was acting out of malice

“Is it concert of action to stand in the Hardee’s line together?”

—on how people who don’t know each other can act together and share similar views

”If it’s raining, you put on a raincoat. If there’s fighting, you put on a helmet.”

—on why Goodwin was wearing tactical gear and a helmet

 

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Guilty plea, dropped charges for another KKK rally protester Copy

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A woman arrested on three charges, including felony assault of a law enforcement officer at the July 8 KKK rally, has pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor.

Jordan Romeo was protesting the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Justice Park when she allegedly assaulted a city cop and City Council critic John Heyden.

She was also charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, to which the 28-year-old Roanoke resident pleaded guilty in Charlottesville General District Court on January 19.

“Despite the commonwealth’s expected evidence in this case, the arresting officer that was assaulted agreed with a sentence involving an alternative to incarceration,” said a press release from Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania released that day.

Prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony said in court that the officer agreed to nolle
prosequi the felony assault charge in exchange for Romeo’s guilty plea of disorderly conduct. At the request of Heyden, who “would like to put the matter behind him,” the misdemeanor assault charge was also dismissed.

Romeo was sentenced to 105 days in jail, with all suspended on the condition that she complete 80 hours of community service and stay on good behavior for two years.

“Allegations of assaultive behavior directed towards law enforcement officers engaged in the lawful performance of their duties are extremely significant events and will be investigated and prosecuted as the serious offenses that they are,” said Platania in the statement.

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Guilty plea, dropped charges for another KKK rally protester

Jordan Romeo. Courtesy of the Charlottesville Police Department

A woman arrested on three charges, including felony assault of a law enforcement officer at the July 8 KKK rally, has pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor.

Jordan Romeo was protesting the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan in Justice Park when she allegedly assaulted a city cop and City Council critic John Heyden.

She was also charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, to which the 28-year-old Roanoke resident pleaded guilty in Charlottesville General District Court on January 19.

“Despite the commonwealth’s expected evidence in this case, the arresting officer that was assaulted agreed with a sentence involving an alternative to incarceration,” said a press release from Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania released that day.

Prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony said in court that the officer agreed to nolle
prosequi the felony assault charge in exchange for Romeo’s guilty plea of disorderly conduct. At the request of Heyden, who “would like to put the matter behind him,” the misdemeanor assault charge was also dismissed.

Romeo was sentenced to 105 days in jail, with all suspended on the condition that she complete 80 hours of community service and stay on good behavior for two years.

“Allegations of assaultive behavior directed towards law enforcement officers engaged in the lawful performance of their duties are extremely significant events and will be investigated and prosecuted as the serious offenses that they are,” said Platania in the statement.

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Charges dropped for mask-wearing protesters at KKK rally

Many protesters at the July KKK rally covered their faces after police used tear gas. photo Eze Amos

Three people charged with wearing a mask at the July 8 KKK rally in Justice Park were in Charlottesville General District Court today, where the prosecution dismissed their felony charges because tear gas used by police could have been a factor in why they covered their faces.

Diego Trujillo, from Charlottesville, Sarah Barner from Waynesboro and Naomi Bendersky from Montgomery Village, Maryland, each were charged with the Class 6 felony that can carry up to five years in jail.

Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Nina Antony told the judge Virginia code prohibits masks worn with the intent to conceal the identity of the wearer. She said police officers saw the three walking toward them. “Fearing an escalation, they arrested these individuals,” she said, adding that the officers had “ample probable cause.”

After the 40 or so Klan members left the July rally, police declared an unlawful assembly, ordered everyone to leave and then fired tear gas into the crowd of those still on High Street, which was closed.

“The use of tear gas beforehand” could have been a reason they covered their faces, acknowledged Antony. “The commonwealth does not have proof beyond a reasonable doubt these individuals were trying to conceal their identities.”

Judge Bob Downer, who has had all the KKK and the August 12 Unite the Right arrests go through his court, commended the prosecution for dropping the charges. “I think it’s well-founded and appropriate” to use discretion in such cases.

The defendants declined to comment after the hearing.

Attorney Jeff Fogel, who represented Bendersky, complimented new Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania, whom Fogel challenged last year in the June Democratic primary, for deciding to nolle prosequi the charges.

However, “I don’t think they should have been arrested,” he said. “They were arrested because they didn’t follow orders. The tear gas should never have been used.”

Bendersky “took out a T-shirt and put it over her face” when the tear gas was fired, he said. “To be arrested for trying to protect yourself?”

Bendersky’s family is from the Soviet Union, and Fogel says they fled because her father was a dissident. She’s 18 and just started at VCU. “This was her first demonstration,” he said.

The law originally was written to prevent KKK members from marching masked in public, but Fogel said the people who tend to get arrested under the statute usually aren’t Klansmen.

“I think it’s written wrong,” said Fogel of the mask-wearing law. Rather than citing intent to conceal one’s identity, he said it should target “intent to intimidate.”

Another case from the KKK rally was continued to January 19. Jordan Romeo from Roanoke is charged with assaulting an officer, a felony, disorderly conduct and misdemeanor assault, the latter complaint brought by frequent City Council critic John Heyden.

 

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‘How dare you:’ Tensions boil during Heaphy presentation

Community members sat shoulder-to-shoulder in City Council Chambers at the December 4 meeting, where people also spilled into at least two remote viewing locations within City Hall. Protest signs called for Mayor Mike Signer’s resignation, and the abolition of police. Photo by Eze Amos

Emotions ran high at the December 4 City Council meeting that began at 7pm when Councilor Kristin Szakos placed two paper plates piled with homemade cookies at the podium and ended at midnight.

Mayor Mike Signer opened the meeting, during which former federal prosecutor Tim Heaphy presented his $350,000 independent review of the summer’s white supremacist rallies, with a plea for civility.

But anyone who’s been following council meetings since August 12, knows that Signer would have needed a Christmas miracle for that wish to come true. And he didn’t get it.

Tim Heaphy. Photo by Eze Amos

Heaphy and the councilors were continually criticized, heckled and shouted over, but the first roar of laughter from the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd came when Heaphy announced that members of the Charlottesville Police Department told him and his Hunton & Williams legal team that they felt prepared for August 12 because they had worked the annual Wertland Street block party and dignitary visits, like when the Dalai Lama came to town in October 2012.

They hadn’t, however, coordinated with Virginia State Police, and most of them had never used riot gear or had relevant training, Heaphy said.

And though Heaphy detailed several instances of a lack of police intervention on August 12—and an apparent order for police not to act “unless someone’s getting killed”—the crowd erupted in caustic applause when he showed a still taken from a police body camera of an officer coming between a white supremacist and an anti-racist activist.

“Y’all fed us to those wolves,” interjected someone from the crowd when the attorney discussed police behavior.

As Heaphy wrapped up his presentation, which lasted an hour longer than scheduled, members of the crowd—some identifying with activist group SolidarityCville—began raising protest signs. The largest one read, “Blood on your hands,” with “Abolish the police” and “Resign Signer” also making an appearance.

Photo by Eze Amos

Vice-mayor Wes Bellamy, whom some blame for summoning the neo-Nazis with his initial call in March 2016 to remove the General Robert E. Lee monument from then-Lee Park, began his comments with an apology.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “We let you all down. I think it’s important we acknowledge that.”

And trying to speed the meeting along, he said, “For $350,000, I got two questions: One, how do we stop the Nazis from coming back. And secondly, how do we protect our citizens?”

Heaphy replied he didn’t have the answers, and the crowd erupted again, asking the attorney what he was paid almost half a million dollars for. Heaphy reminded attendees several times that his job was to review what went right and wrong during the summer of hate.

About 40 members of the public spoke at the meeting, with Dave Ghamandi firing up the crowd as he roasted the police, Chief Al Thomas, City Manager Maurice Jones, Heaphy and Signer.

Dave Ghamandi. Photo by Eze Amos

“You and Signer are two crony gangsters spit out by UVA law school,” he said to Heaphy, also calling him a “glorified ambulance chaser” who “profited off tragedy and death.” Ghamandi said Jones is afraid to fire Thomas because he’ll drag Jones down, too.

Councilor-elect Nikuyah Walker also took the podium to address centuries of racism, systemic oppression and public chatter that Jones and Thomas could be held accountable for the failure of the rallies and lose their jobs.

Nikuyah Walker. Photo by Eze Amos

“There should not be rumors that the two people who are going to be asked to leave potentially are two black men,” she said. “That should be unacceptable.”

But perhaps tensions were at their highest boiling point at the conclusion of Heaphy’s presentation, when he said, “Things could have been worse.” Without missing a beat, someone in the crowd fired back, “How dare you?”

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Obstruction cases: Nine dropped, two plead guilty from KKK rally charges

Nic McCarthy was one of nine people to have an obstruction of justice charge dropped after the July 8 KKK rally. Photo by: Eze Amos

In the never-ending string of court cases stemming from this year’s run-ins with white supremacists and neo-Nazis, 15 people went before a judge October 30 for charges brought against them during the July 8 Ku Klux Klan rally in Justice Park.

Approximately 50 members of the Loyal White Knights of the KKK, a North Carolina-based group, dropped by over the summer to protest the tearing down of the General Robert E. Lee statue—and were met by intense opposition in the form of hundreds of angry counterprotesters. Just over 20 people were arrested that day, primarily for obstruction of justice and free passage.

Kandace Baker was among those in Charlottesville General District Court October 30.

After pleading not guilty to obstruction of justice, she testified that she was looking for her husband near Justice Park around 4pm when a Virginia State Police trooper told her an unlawful assembly had been declared and she needed to leave the area. Baker tried several times to turn and walk back through the alley she initially came through, but the officer pushed her and would not allow her to exit the way she entered, she said. He arrested her and another VSP trooper “dragged [her]” to the courthouse to press charges, she said.

Though Judge Robert Downer said he had probable cause to believe she was obstructing justice, he said he’s not sure she’s guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and he let her off the hook.

“Just because you make their job a little more difficult, that’s not enough for obstruction of justice,” Downer said.

He dropped charges against nine counterprotesters who were arrested for obstructing free passage at the rally, likely in a demonstration where several anti-white supremacists linked arms in front of a gate that police planned to usher the robed Klan members through. These people include Kendall Bills, Cameron Bills, Jo Donahue, John Neavear, Nic McCarthy, Jeanne Peterson, Evan Viglietta, Whitney Whitting and Sara Tansey, who wore teal lipstick and matching tights to court in true Halloween fashion.

Tansey was found guilty of destruction of property in the same court October 16 for nabbing homegrown white rights advocate Jason Kessler’s phone while he was live-streaming a Corey Stewart rally in Emancipation Park February 11.

Also on October 30, Morgan Niles and Erika Ries pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and were both sentenced to 30 days in jail, with all of that substituted for 40 hours of community service.

Three people had their cases continued. Tracye Redd, also charged with obstruction of justice, will appear December 1. Jarrell Jones, charged with assault and battery, and Rashaa Langston, charged with failing to disperse in a riot, will be back in court March 5.

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Rashomon effect: Police chief defends tear gas; activists allege police brutality

Riot-shield-wielding police were called in to assist in getting the KKK out of town. Eze amos

In the post-mortem of the July 8 KKK rally in Justice Park that resulted in 22 arrests and riot-garbed Virginia State Police tear-gassing protesters, widely diverging accounts of the event are playing out like a Kurosawa film.

Police Chief Al Thomas says his force has gotten “hundreds and hundreds of compliments” for how city police handled the estimated 1,500 people who attended. At the same time, activists are decrying the “brutality” of militarized police and the tear gassing of protesters, and demanding that the charges against those arrested be dropped.

Chief Al Thomas defends the use of tear gas to disperse protesters after the KKK left. Photo Eze Amos

And four legal organizations—the ACLU, Legal Aid Justice Center, the National Lawyers Guild and the Rutherford Institute—have asked City Council and Governor Terry McAuliffe to investigate the “over-militarized” police presence, the declarations of unlawful assemblies and the use of tear gas, and called for a permanent citizen review board.

Thomas defends its use. “The crowd was becoming more aggressive toward law enforcement,” throwing water bottles, using a pepper gel and spitting, he says.

According to Solidarity Cville, police escalated a peaceful demonstration against “white supremacist hate” by declaring an unlawful assembly after the Klan left. At a July 14 press conference in front of the police department, Emily Gorcenski, who was one of those tear-gassed, called the decision “unnecessary and unreasonable” and pointed out, “Charlottesville residents can’t clear out of a Dave Matthews concert in under an hour, yet police declared a peaceful crowd to be an unlawful assembly within minutes of the KKK departure.”

In the timeline of events, the Loyal White Knights of the KKK had a permit to protest the removal of Confederate monuments from 3 to 4pm. Because of the crush of counter-protesters surrounding the park, the KKK wasn’t able to get in until about 3:45pm. Shortly before 4:30pm, Chief Thomas ordered an end to the Klan demonstration, and protesters followed the Loyal Whites out to a secured garage on Fourth Street NE.

Protesters clogged the street, and Deputy Chief Gary Pleasants declared the first unlawful assembly of the day. Police and protesters agree on one thing: “We were trying to get them out of here as fast as possible,” says Thomas.

“No one wanted to bar the KKK from leaving the city,” says Gorcenski. “We wanted to make sure the Klan didn’t spend a minute longer in Charlottesville than necessary.”

After the KKK left around 4:44pm, police headed toward High Street, where Thomas describes a hostile crowd of several hundred people becoming aggressive toward police. On-scene commanders from city police and the Virginia State Police made the decision to deploy tear gas, says Thomas.

At 4:58pm, fewer than 15 minutes after the Klan left, police declared an unlawful assembly, says Solidarity Cville.

“We reject the allegation the deployment of chemicals was in response to a police defense strategy,” says Gorcenski. “Video evidence shows police went through a lengthy, minutes-long process of preparing gas masks.”

The Rutherford Institute’s John Whitehead contends police use of military equipment, including riot shields, assault weapons, grenade launcher and BearCat, changed the dynamic of the event, and the civil liberties orgs say the “heavy-handed demonstration of force” escalated rather than de-escalated the event.

“I would say bringing a hate group in changes the event,” counters Thomas. “That’s when we saw a change, when the Klan arrived. They brought hate and fear into our city.” Thomas also notes that city cops were in their normal uniforms for most of the day and did not have riot gear.

After the Klan left, there was a scuffle on the ramp leading up to the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, and two people were detained there, says Gorcenski. “It was a very, very confusing situation,” she says. Police were giving contradictory instructions, and people on the ramp had nowhere to go, she recounts.

Solidarity Cville alleges one of the people sitting on the ramp was kicked in the head three times by police. In a video the group provided, it appears an officer trying to get around them stumbled against one of the seated protesters, Tracye Prince DeSon, and looks horrified when people start shouting that he’d kicked the activist.

DeSon claims police used pepper spray on him six minutes before the first tear gas was fired. A video shows a Charlottesville police officer with a cannister in his hand, and moments later people in the vicinity are filmed coughing and reacting to an irritant, including this reporter.

A number of people, among them street medics, bystanders, ACLU observers and journalists, have discussed getting tear-gassed, and many of them said they didn’t hear the order to disperse, nor the warning that a chemical agent would be used.

Solidarity Cville’s Laura Goldblatt says medics were treating a woman in distress on the grass beside the juvenile court when the first tear gas went off beside her.

C-VILLE photographer Eze Amos was behind police taking photos of a dancing man when the first cannister went off and the wind shifted. “Around my mouth was burning, around my eyes were burning,” he says. “I was choking.”

Civil rights attorney Jeff Fogel also got tear-gassed, and says it was unreasonable to order people to leave immediately after the Klan left. “Two people were arguing at the end and police said it was an unlawful assembly,” he says. “Does that justify using tear gas on 100?”

Thomas says, “It is unfortunate” that bystanders on the sidelines got caught in the tear-gas crossfire. “It does travel. A number of our officers not wearing gas masks took in some of the gas as well.”

Three people were charged with wearing a mask—a felony—and at the July 14 press conference, Don Gathers with Black Lives Matter said, “They used their shirts and scarves to protect themselves from the chemical agents released by police.” Earlier, a masked Klansman was asked to remove his mask and not arrested, says Gathers.

City Councilor Kristin Szakos, who was not present at the KKK rally, says, “I wish there hadn’t been tear gas.” She adds, “It wasn’t unprovoked. There were people who were actively confronting police.”

Police kept people safe, while allowing people to stand up to the hatred of the KKK, she says. “The Klan knows they’re not welcome here.”

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City Council asked to investigate police force, revoke Unite the Right permit

A number of people at a July City Council meeting called for the revocation of the permit for the August 12 Unite the Right rally. Photo Eze Amos

City Council’s first meeting after the July 8 KKK rally had 57 people wanting to voice their concerns about police use of force and tear-gassing protesters. Legal organizations asked for investigations and multiple citizens wanted the permit for Jason Kessler’s August 12 Unite the Right revoked.

At times the July 17 meeting was like a civics lesson on basic constitutional rights. City Manager Maurice Jones disputed protesters’ contentions that city police protected the Klan and its hate speech. “We’re not defending this speech,” he said. “We’re defending their right to speak.”

Mayor Mike Signer also explained that City Council has no control over the prosecution of criminal charges, which falls under the purview of the commonwealth’s attorney.

And Jones and other councilors pointed out they could not revoke the Unite the Right permit, because that’s protected speech as well, although Signer said he did have “grave” concerns about the logistics of holding an event that will draw hundreds to Emancipation Park.

Legal Aid Justice Center’s Mary Bauer has concerns about police use of force at the KKK rally, and several councilors agreed to an investigation. Photo Eze Amos

Mary Bauer with Legal Aid Justice Center spoke on behalf of three other legal groups—the ACLU, National Lawyers Guild and Rutherford Institute—that jointly had written City Council and Governor Terry McAuliffe that day about police handling of the constitutionally protected right to assemble July 8 after the Klan left. “We have profound concerns about the militarized police presence,” she said.

Bauer asked for an investigation into who invited the riot-clad Virginia State Police, who determined the event was an unlawful assembly and who ordered the use of tear gas, as well as calling for a permanent citizen review board.

A number of people talked about heavy-handed police tactics toward demonstrators. UVA prof and activist Jalane Schmidt tossed an empty tear gas cannister to councilors and asked them to imagine that hitting their flesh. “This has to stop, this militarization of police,” she said. “To a hammer, everything is a nail.”

City councilors got to examine one of the tear-gas cannisters fired at citizens July 8. Photo Eze Amos

And for activist Don Gathers, July 8 will be one of those dates that people always remember where they were, as “the day the KKK came to town and the day Charlottesville citizens were tear-gassed.”

As has become typical for City Council, Signer had to suspend the meeting when attendees became unruly and booed Jones’ timeline of police actions after the Klan left, particularly his assertion that “after numerous requests for the crowd to disperse,” Chief Al Thomas made the decision to “deploy a dispersion irritant.”

 

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Skeletons in the closet: Historical society displays KKK robes, keeps owners secret

Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society president Steven Meeks points out details in the emblem on a 1920s KKK robe to onlookers Wes Bellamy, Jalane Schmidt and Jane Smith. Photo Eze Amos

 

After several weeks of prodding by a UVA researcher, the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society produced two of the 26 Ku Klux Klan robes in its collection, but its president refused to reveal which of the city’s citizens wore those robes in the 1920s.

The yellowed robes were stretched out in the exhibit hall of the historical society July 6 for a private viewing that included the media, UVA researchers and members of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces.

Two of the 26 KKK robes in the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society’s museum collection saw the light of day two days before the Loyal White Knights of the KKK hit Charlottesville. Photo Eze Amos

The robes were discovered in a shed in the eastern part of the city in 1993, according to the historical society. The Klan apparel was stored in a crate and had been exposed to dirt, heat, humidity and wear.

The resident who discovered and donated the robes did not request that his or her identity be concealed, nor did the donor request that the original owners of the robes remain anonymous, says historical society president Steven Meeks.

“Due to the sensitive nature of these artifacts, and in the interest of protecting the privacy of the descendants of both the donors and the original owners of the artifacts, at this time the society is not disclosing the address where the artifacts were found, nor the identity of the donor or the names of the two Klan members associated with this collections,” says Meeks.

Along with the robes was a KKK certificate of knighthood dated June 1, 1926. A facsimile of the certificate was enlarged and the name of the Klansman was redacted.

Meeks did not attempt to contact the donors, he says. He cited the impending visit of the Loyal Knights of the KKK as the reason for protecting the owners and their descendant

That decision caused some concern among the historians and members of the blue ribbon commission present.

UVA Associate Professor Jalane Schmidt, who is researching UVA’s ties to the KKK, which donated $1,000 to Memorial Gym in 1921, says she filed a research request with the historical society in mid-June to view the robes and received no response.

UVA prof Jalane Schmidt compared seeing the robes to going to a funeral, where you know someone died, but there’s still a heaviness in actually seeing the casket. Photo Eze Amos

She believes the robes should be displayed and the owners revealed. “This is not good practice for a historical society,” she says.

John Edwin Mason is a UVA history professor who served on the blue ribbon commission. If the historical society displays the robes, as Meeks suggested it might, to understand them fully, its job would be to interpret the artifacts, says Mason, “You can’t do your job as a historical society without the provenance being attached to the display of this archive. It just can’t be done.”

Mason questioned protecting the identity of owners “who are long since dead.” Knowing who wore the robes “is essential to understanding the role of the Ku Klux Klan in Charlottesville society,” he says.

Meeks did say the wearers of the two robes displayed “were neither one prominent members of the town.”

Steven Meeks. Photo Eze Amos

But a June 28, 1921, Daily Progress article on the newly organized Klan chapter and its inaugural cross-burning at Monticello says the event was attended by “hundreds of Charlottesville’s leading business and professional men.”

And a 1922 Progress story notes that robed and masked Klan members showed up with a floral tribute with three Ks spelled out in white flowers at the funeral of Albemarle Sheriff C.M. Thomas.

“I think [Meeks] is being overly cautious when it comes to the people who at the time were associated with the Klan,” says Mason. He says he’s much less bothered with keeping the names of the donors secret.

But Don Gathers, who chaired the blue ribbon commission, says what the Klan members stood for is “morally wrong,” and the fact that the donors did not request anonymity “raises the question why” Meeks would take that stance.

Doug Day, former executive director of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society, says he displayed the robes in 2005 or 2006. “At the time, the provenance was already smudged,” he says. The garments were found in Belmont when someone bought a house there, he adds.

Day says he would have “real reservations” about releasing the names of the owners and donors. “Why expose them? To what end?” he asks. “It’s perfectly in the purview of the historical society to withhold the names.

Attorney and lifelong Charlottesville resident Lewis Martin says Meeks discussed the issue with him. “It wasn’t so much a legal decision as about where we are now,” says Martin. “The historical society didn’t want to expose any descendants” of Klan members, nor discourage anyone who might want to donate artifacts to the organization.