Criminal and disciplinary charges have been dropped against protesters arrested
at UVA on May 4. Photo by Eze Amos.
Charges against student protesters arrested May 4 have been dropped, but the University of Virginia continues to grapple with protections for and restrictions on freedom of speech. While celebrating its status as the No.1 campus for free speech in the nation, UVA is cracking down on students’ ability to demonstrate on Grounds.
Prior to the start of fall semester, the university updated its rules governing “demonstrations and access to shared spaces” on Grounds. Through these changes, UVA has not only deemed any form of encampment against university policy, but outlined a willingness to escalate to trespass warnings and arrest for noncompliance.
Key changes to demonstration policy include: expanding the definition of the Academical Village, which is subject to additional demonstration restrictions; banning outdoor events on Grounds, including demonstrations, between 2 and 6am; prohibiting camping, with or without a tent, in outdoor spaces; prohibiting sleeping outside between midnight and 6am; and requiring any person wearing a face covering to provide identification if requested by a UVA official.
Students who fail to comply with UVA policy after being informed of a violation can face disciplinary action including “the issuance of an interim suspension by Student Affairs and a trespass warning by law enforcement. Failure to abide by the trespass warning will result in arrest. Every reasonable effort will be made to resolve the matter at the lowest possible level without the involvement of law enforcement.”
UVA’s policies on protests, demonstrations, and gatherings on university property, which include potential consequences for policy violations, can be found at freespeech.virginia.edu/policies-regulations.
Earlier this month, UVA officials demonstrated a willingness to both enforce these new policies and call university police for peaceful noncompliance. According to The Daily Progress, on September 12, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Marsh Pattie informed students on the Lawn making signs calling for divestment that their use of a folding table violated policy, and asked a student wearing a mask to provide ID.
When the student did not identify themself, Pattie threatened to contact university police. The situation deescalated when the student left the area and the table was taken down. The table was briefly set up again in front of a Lawn room with the permission of its resident, but was deconstructed again when Pattie returned with another official.
In the midst of the implementation of new rules and a crackdown on peaceful organizing, UVA was named the top college for free speech in the nation on September 5 by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
“FIRE considered several factors, including students’ perceived ability to have difficult conversations, their comfort expressing views on controversial topics and perceptions of their administration’s support for free speech,” wrote University News Senior Associate Jane Kelly in a UVAToday article highlighting the announcement. “The top-ranked colleges have the highest average score among all students surveyed and have the most open environments for free speech.”
For student and faculty organizers, the announcement, and UVA’s public celebration of free speech on Grounds, was deeply ironic.
“If they’re so proud of [the FIRE ranking], then I think [UVA] should roll back the new protest guidelines and start to really listen to faculty and students,” said Laura Goldblatt, assistant professor and faculty liaison for pro-Palestine student protesters, in an interview with C-VILLE. “If they’re so proud of their rankings, then they should follow through on the actions that those rankings might require of them. Instead of using them as a publicity tool, they should use them as a way to guide their decisions about policy.”
Calculated through more than 58,000 surveys, FIRE’s 2025 College Free Speech Rankings considered data collected from students between January 25 and June 17 this year. Beyond surveys, schools were not further penalized for actions related to encampment protests, according to Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens.
“This decision was made because many schools were likely dealing with a complicated mix of protected and unprotected speech, so accurately adjudicating each individual incident that may or may not have made one of our databases would’ve been impossible,” said Stevens in an email. He further highlighted a footnote from the report, noting that, “The impact of the encampment protests on the campus speech climate is captured by responses to survey questions that ask students about their confidence that their college administration protects speech rights on campus, their comfort expressing controversial political views, and how frequently they self-censor. Deplatformings that occurred during the encampment protests were also still included in the calculation of the 2025 College Free Speech Rankings.”
Laura Beltz, director of policy reform for FIRE, said UVA’s updated demonstration policies will be reviewed as part of the nonprofit’s annual speech code report in January.
Woody Guthrie’s protest song “This Land Is Your Land” is “arguably more popular than our national anthem” according to American Songwriter magazine. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress
Everyone knows at least one protest song. There’s Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land,” which American Songwriter magazine says is “arguably more popular than our national anthem”; Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On”; Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit”; Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come”; Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”; Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In The Wind”; Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son”; Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”; Fiona Apple’s “Tiny Hands.” The list goes on and on.
These songs endure because their comments on fascism, racism, neglect for the environment, sexism, privilege and more burrow deep into the ears, hearts and minds of listeners, stirring emotion and reaction by speaking truth to weighty issues that affect all of us in some way.
But protest songs aren’t just written by folk icons, riot grrls and hip-hop legends—plenty of Charlottesville musicians of many genres are actively writing and performing songs in the protest tradition. Here’s a sampler from local artists.
Keith Morris, “What Happened To Your Party?”
Known to at least one of his fellow musicians as “our rockin’ protest grouch in chief,” Keith Morris has a slew of protest songs, such as “Psychopaths & Sycophants,” “Prejudiced & Blind” and “Brownsville Market” from his Dirty Gospel album, plus “Blind Man,” “Peaceful When You Sleep” and “Border Town” from Love Wounds & Mars. He wrote his latest release, “What Happened To Your Party,” about a month ago. Morris says “it’s about Trump, the Republican party, fundamentalist Christianity, my brother’s suicide, and just what the hell is going on right now.”
Erin Lunsford, “Neighbor’s Eye”
Lunsford recorded this song about resistance in February of this year. “Brother we must resist / Sister we must persist / This is no easy road / We’re going down. / Shoulders sore from fists held high / Boots on the ground but our spirits fly / How will I know if I’m on the right side? / I’ll tell by the love, tell by the love in my mother’s eye,” she sings.
The Beetnix, “Dirty World”
“Most extreme acts of protest come from a sense of desperation and lack of hope derived from the belief that a person or group of people lack value or respect within a society or community,” says Damani “Glitch One” Harrison, who performs in local hip-hop group The Beetnix with Louis “Waterloo” Hampton. Harrison says that although Beetnix songs might not be protest songs by definition, “they definitely embody the struggle.”
“Dirty World” describes “the sense of hopelessness we feel at times, existing in a society where we know there are so many forces that work against the best interest of the common people,” says Harrison. “The quotes from George Carlin [the late comedian famous for his “seven dirty words” routine] further illustrate that feeling while fighting a losing battle against an elitist power structure.”
Matt Curreri & The Exfriends, “Vote for Me”
“I’m the real thing, I’m the real deal. I have things you would kill for / You can have ’em if you vote for me / I’ll re-rig the system to the way it used to be,” begins “Vote for Me,” a song that Curreri wrote during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Lauren Hoffman, “Pictures From America”
“They tell me war is justified, to forward all mankind / And peace only comes through sacrifice / Do you think they’re right?” Lauren Hoffman sings on “Pictures from America,” a track from 2010’s Interplanetary Traveler. The song paints a picture “of the juxtaposition between deep sadness for the world—war, injustice, bigotry, hubris—and the importance of human connection, because without that we could despair completely.” See also “A Friend for the Apocalypse.”
KNDRGRDN, “Police”
“The stylish kids put in their false teeth / They cut off their hair and occupy Wall Street / I wish I were pure enough to believe / I wish then again that all the fakers would leave,” Jonathan Teeter sings on “Police.” It’s “a criticism about the disconnected way that Occupy Wall Street was handled by protesters,” Teeter says of his Brit pop-y tune with ’tude. “Every group involved seemed to have a different plan and there was no unanimous decision for an endgame.”
“Then there’s the problem with the police / They cut their hair and keep the peace / They keep it with guns / And they keep it with mace / They keep telling me I’m in the wrong parking space,” Teeter sings on the next verse—the police are just as unorganized as the protestors. Basically, Teeter says, “this whole thing is one big fucking mess.”
Jamie Dyer, “King Of The World”
This song “protests the overall political structure that’s existed for all of history and the seeming human need to crown someone as a ‘leader,’” Jamie Dyer says. “The end result of how humans allow this idea to propagate is shown in our history: tens, hundreds of millions of dead humans at the hands of kinds, leaders and the state.” With lyrics such as “the meek will inherit what the strong will lose. / What the meek don’t want, I don’t use. / I heard about a party, I heard about a feast. / The most make a meal of the least,” Dyer’s message is clear.
EquallyOpposite, “Temper”
Hip-hop duo EquallyOpposite spits some of the most clever lyrics in town, and the message in “Temper” is crystal: #DONTCENSORME. It’s not the duo’s only protest song. Check “The Blind Mans outro,” too.
“Robert E. Lee’s in a public park / Out in the middle of a public park / The shadow of his sword falls on the grass till it gets dark / General Lee’s in our public park,” Brady Earnhart sings about the statue that’s caused a hell of a lot of controversy in Charlottesville. So “stick it in an alt.-right petting zoo,” he says. “The South’s not dead but the men who fought for slavery are / Emancipation Park is a Southern star.”
“I hear slaves would follow the Northern Star to freedom. At this point, I’m hoping other Southern towns will follow Charlottesville’s suit and cleanse themselves of the Confederate monuments that are getting more embarrassing with every passing year,” says Earnhart.
Fellowman (ft. Sizz Gabana), “Loot This”
“Almost all of my songs are in the protest tradition,” says MC and lyricist Cullen “Fellowman” Wade, but he feels that “Loot This,” from his 2016 album Raw Data Vol. 1: Soul of the Shitty, is especially relevant to Charlottesville this summer. Wade says the song is “a response to the respectability politics of liberals who say ‘I don’t understand how destroying their own communities helps advance their agenda.’ Institutions of power have consistently shown that they value property rights above human rights; our showing flagrant disregard for their property is the only proportionate human response.”
“Give me uncommon stars in a barren ether / A sure direction of universal entropy / Feel their cold gazing with blackened eyes, but without fire,” members of Astronomers sing in unison on this stargazey rock track from their 2011 album Size Matters. The song “isn’t protest so much as unity, which I am much more for,” says Astronomers’ Nate Bolling. “I realize it’s a bit abstract, but it was meant to be so that it could be interpreted individually by listeners. The gist is that there’s a lot of people out there and everyone’s moving in their own direction; lots of confusion and bad stuff too, but somehow we figure out how to live together.”
Tracy Howe Wispelwey has made an album rife with protest songs—the titles speak for themselves, really: “Call to Nonviolence,” “Do Not Be Afraid” and “People Come Together,” on which she sings, “People come together, come together right now/ Fear won’t find us when we know we’re a family.”
Gild the Mourn, “Hanging Tree”
Local goth duo Gild the Mourn were compelled to cover this track from the Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 1 soundtrack to “convey its message to our audience: We have been mistreated, we have suffered injustice and accepted it as life. Now we rise together and unify, we fight,” says singer Angel Metro. In the film, Katniss Everdeen sings it while citizens of Panem rise up to protest torture they’ve experienced at the hands of the Capitol. It goes: “Are you, are you / Coming to the tree / They strung up a man / They say who murdered three / Strange things did happen here / No stranger would it be / If we met at midnight / In the hanging tree.”
“D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y. die trying/ D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y. D.I.Y. die trying/ We found the lost and gave ’em microphones to yell/ Until their voices echoed ‘change’ down in the well,” goes the refrain on Breakers’ song on the importance of unity and empathy, and how it’s that’s not easily achieved. “long story short…if you want something done, you have to do it yourself,” says Breakers songwriter Lucas Brown.
“In our current political climate, it feels like there has never been more division between groups of people,” says Brown. The divide can be attributed to many things, such as news outlets pushing certain agendas and constant consumption of varying perspectives on social media. “People are much easier to control when their worlds are shaped to their own beliefs by constant consumption and affirmation of said beliefs. When they fear or despise their fellow human beings because they disagree, all hope of unity is lost. And for those in power, unity is the enemy. …Connecting with others has never been easier, yet face-to-face human interactions have suffered a blow. A large number of voices could be united on this front, but the internet usually turns them into an echo-chamber of babble. …If you can empathize with and find a common goal to unite the people around you, everybody’s efforts are necessary to make any change,” says Brown.
“Ghost of the King,” Gina Sobel
This bluesy/jazzy track “deals with mountaintop removal, changing economies and the people left behind,” says Sobel. “It can be hard to see through culture and history, even when the issue is something like blowing up mountains.”
We’ll update the page as more artists submit their songs, so check back periodically for more. Got a song to share? Send it to cvillearts@c-ville.com.
The Loyal White Knights of the KKK made their showing in Justice Park July 8 to protest the removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee. Hundreds of protesters surrounded the park, delaying the arrival of the 50 or so Klansmen. The brief 30-minute event was loud, but uneventful. Afterward, Virginia State Police in riot gear tear gassed protesters who refused to clear High Street, a first for Charlottesville, at least in the past several decades.
Tear gas over High Street. Those state police riot squads mean business when they say to clear the street. Staff photo
Even some Charlottesville police officers were gassed, as well as bystanders near those blocking the street. Twenty-two people were arrested in the course of the afternoon [police initially reported 23 arrests, then said one person was counted twice].
“The city abdicated its duty to state police,” says civil rights attorney Jeff Fogel. “You can’t treat cops like human beings when they’re dressed like Ninja turtles.”
The city had geared up for the event for weeks with alternate events at the Jefferson School, IX Art Park and the Sprint Pavilion. Police Chief Al Thomas and Mayor Mike Signer urged citizens to ignore the white supremacist group.
But for many, such as Black Lives Matter, Showing Up for Racial Justice and religious groups, turning their backs on the KKK was not an option.
Former congressman and recent gubernatorial candidate Tom Perriello was at the park. “It was a typical hometown weekend, seeing the family and protesting the Klan,” he says. “Ultimately silence is not an option.”
By 2pm protesters began filling and surrounding the park formerly known as Jackson Park. So too, did police. More than 100 Charlottesville police officers were present, assisted by Albemarle, UVA and Virginia State Police.
The crowd was estimated at more than 1,000. according to city spokesperson Miriam Dickler. The Klan’s permit was from 3 to 4pm, but by 3pm, the only Confederate supporter showing up was Crozet resident Colby Dudley.
Gas-mask wearing riot police disperse after shooting three rounds of tear gas. Staff photo
Around 3:20, police in riot gear filed out of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court building across the street from Justice Park, and cleared a path for the Klanners to enter the park, which they did at 3:45pm.
A white-hooded man who identified himself as Douglas Barker said he was there so “they can’t take our statue down.” It was unclear if he was aware the statue City Council voted to remove—General Robert E. Lee—is located at a different park.
The Klanners assembled in a free speech corral set up by city police, carrying signs such as, “Jews are Satan’s Children” and waving Confederate flags, while the crowd of counterprotesters that vastly outnumbered them shouted, “Racists go home.”
It was uncertain the Loyal Whites’ imperial wizard, Christopher Barker, was going to appear because he’s facing charges from a stabbing in his home in Yanceyville, North Carolina, and his bond prohibits him from leaving the county. However, according to an imperial kludd who identified himself as James Moore, Barker was present in purple robes.
Moore, who has also been identified as Richmond area resident James T. Seay, says he came because he was “sick and tired of the ongoing cultural genocide of white people.” He cited Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy and his infamous tweets about white women as another reason for protesting, but when asked about the conduct of the imperial wizard stabbing a grand dragon, Moore shrugged.
After the rally, he said the gang would have a cookout and cross burning on private property in Culpeper, where he expected to welcome new members.
The Loyal Whites and its coterie were escorted out around 4:40pm, and they were followed by protesters down Fourth Street NE, where apparently they’d parked in a garage behind the juvenile court. With the street clogged, Deputy Chief Gary Pleasants declared the assembly of people there “unlawful” and warned, “If you don’t disperse, you will be arrested.”
A parade of vehicles exited the garage. And then things got ugly.
Angry protesters shouted at police and blocked High Street. At least two people were wrestled to the ground near the juvenile court, and the order was given to disperse or chemicals would be used. Riot-clad police donned their gas masks, and three rounds of tear gas were fired off, catching even some city police in the crossfire.
“They blocking the street,” observed a woman about the phalanx of militarized officers standing in the middle of High. “I’m going to make a citizen’s arrest.”
More than 2,000 turned out for Charlottesville’s rally to support the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., January 21. Photo by Ryan Jones
Charlottesville is no stranger to protests. The city’s Free Speech Wall is a testament to the First Amendment and a frequent gathering spot for citizens exercising their right to assemble.
That said, we’ve never seen anything like this.
Since the election of Donald Trump as president, at least seven new groups have sprung up, and a couple of more were formed during 2016. Mayor Mike Signer declared Charlottesville the “capital of the resistance” at a January 31 rally, and it’s hard to keep up with the ongoing protests.
“I see resistance as a broad spectrum, ranging from making donations to organizations that stand for American values to joining a protest to calling a congressman to changing a friend’s mind to supporting a lawsuit to embracing a member of a vulnerable and victimized population,” says Signer.“What’s happening in Charlottesville at this very moment encompasses this whole spectrum,” he says.
From women’s rights to immigrant rights to racial justice to health care, there’s one or more groups focusing on the issue and they’ve all come to a boil since Trump’s inauguration. And that’s on top of longstanding, local re-energized groups like Charlottesville NOW, Virginia Organizing and Legal Aid Justice Center.
The left has the bulk of the new groups, but there’s also resistance from the far, so-called “alt-right,” which many local activists call white nationalists.
“Of course this is unprecedented,” says the Center for Politics’ Larry Sabato. “But, then again, we’ve never had a president like Trump.”
Sabato says it usually takes years for opposition to build to a significant level, as it did for President Herbert Hoover once America had suffered through years of the Great Depression, or LBJ because of the Vietnam War. President Richard Nixon, who took office in January 1969, didn’t see a big anti-war rally until October of that year.
“The largest demonstrations were for civil rights in the 1960s,” says Sabato, and were not directed against any president. Also huge were the anti-war demonstrations following Nixon’s invasion of Cambodia in May 1970, he says.
“I expect that these activities will evolve as the threats evolve,” says Signer. “I’m incredibly proud to be a member of a community with so much resistance happening on so many levels.”
Who’s protesting what? Here’s C-VILLE Weekly’s guide to the resistance.—with additional reporting by Samantha Baars
Together Cville has weekly potlucks at IX Art Park. Photo by Eze Amos
Together Cville
Issue: Make sure the vulnerable in our community are safe with access to resources
Motto: Keep strong and fight together
Event: Weekly potluck on Sundays from 5:30-7pm at IX Art Park
Supporters: 670 on e-mail list; 60 to 100 at potlucks
Info: togethercville.net
Quote:“Our goal is to resist the current regime’s agenda. The promise of America is the freedom to pursue flourishing lives.”—Nathan Moore
Together Cville started the day after the election as a way of “channeling the anger and disappointment into something useful,” says Moore. The group takes a multipronged approach, he says, and is in touch with other groups. It also has produced a calendar of local activist events. And the Sunday potlucks, he says, are “rejuvenating.”
Together Cville Women’s Group
Origin: Pantsuit Nation
Issue: Meeting place to gather volunteers,
learn about protests
Event: Monthly first Saturday meeting from 4-6pm at the Friends Quaker Meeting House, 1104 Forest St.
Supporters: 200 followers on Facebook; works with other groups such as Together Cville
Quote: “I think a lot of us got to the point it was overwhelming, there were so many issues, so now we help find your passion.”—Dianne Bearinger
Bearinger, who grew up in the ’60s and has been an activist all her life, says, “I’ve never seen anything like this.” Activism “hasn’t felt like a choice to me because so much I care about is threatened.” She lists the environment and seeing rising sea levels where she grew up in New Jersey, friends in the Islamic community who feel threatened, friends
raising black sons and feeling vulnerable, and the Affordable Care Act, which Bearinger depends on for health care.
Indivisible Charlottesville members are weekly regulars at the Berkmar Crossing office of Congressman Tom Garrett. Photo by Eze Amos
Indivisible Charlottesville
Origin: Indivisible Guide written by former congressional staffers
Issue: Get Congress to listen to a vocal minority
Strategy: Protest style borrows from the
Tea Party playbook
Event: Weekly Tuesday protests from noon-1:30pm at U.S. Representative Tom Garrett’s office at Berkmar Crossing, and the group held a town hall meeting February 26 without Garrett, who was in Germany
Supporters: 3,500 on Facebook; 1,600 on e-mail list; 200-250 people at weekly protests
Info: facebook.com/indivisiblecharlottesville
Quote: “We had a lot of people at the beginning who can organize and people who can volunteer 10 hours a week. We’re figuring out how to channel that volunteer energy.”—David Singerman
Indivisible Charlottesville reserved a room at the Central Library January 28, expecting 100 people might show up, says Singerman. Instead, about 500 showed up, the event moved to The Haven and “the roller coaster began,” he says. While Garrett has been a vocal Trump supporter, he isn’t the only one in Congress the group is pressuring. Virginia’s two Democratic senators have also heard from Indivisible, says Singerman. “Trump has thrown unexpected curveballs,” he says. “There won’t be any shortage of issues.”
Charlottesville Democratic Socialists of America
Inspired by: The Bern
Issues: Living wage, affordable housing,
universal health care
Strategy: Going to public meetings and
voicing opinions
Supporters: 30 to 40 at the group’s first public meeting February 15
Info: facebook.com/CvilleDSA
Quote: “It’s a political ideology focusing on the importance of social and economic equities,
collective decision-making and ownership.”—Lewis Savarese
The national Democratic Socialists of America organization started in 1982, but the socialist tradition in the U.S. goes back to the early 20th century, when Eugene Debs ran for president five times. More recently, Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign reignited interest in democratic socialism and the local group hopes to tap into that energy. “Currently the system panders to certain interest groups, like corporations,” says Savarese. “We believe we can bring more people into the political process.”
A demonstration got loud February 11 when candidate for governor Corey Stewart showed up to denounce City Council’s vote to remove the state of General Robert E. Lee from Lee Park, and members of SURJ showed up in counterprotest. Photo by Eze Amos
Showing Up for Racial Justice
Inspired by: Last July’s police shootings of unarmed black men Philando Castile and Alton Sterling
Issue: Getting more white people to focus on racial justice
Strategy: Mobilize quickly and use a diversity of tactics to show zero-tolerance for white supremacists
Event: SURJ members were in former Trump campaign Virginia chair/GOP gubernatorial candidate Corey Stewart’s face when he came to Charlottesville February 11 to denounce City Council’s vote to remove the General Robert E. Lee statue.
Supporters: 980 Facebook followers; 350 on e-mail list
Info: facebook.com/surjcville
Quote: “It’s white people’s job to undermine white supremacists.”—Pam Starsia
Protests are not SURJ’s only way of combating racism. The group co-sponsored a February 21 workshop on gentrification, zoning and form-based code with the local NAACP, Legal Aid Justice Center and Public Housing Association of Residents. And SURJ admonished the local media not to normalize fringe racist groups who call themselves “alt-right” without defining them as white supremacists or white nationalists.
heARTful Action
Issue: How to do the activism thing and do it in a healthy way
Event: Monthly workshops on aspects of activism and self-care on the last Saturday of the month from 3-5pm at Friends Quaker Meeting House
Supporters: 200 on Facebook; connected to Together Cville, Together Cville Women’s Group and Indivisible Charlottesville
Info: focuspocusnow.com/category/heartful-action
Quote: “It feels like this time we can’t think our way out of it. We need to feel in our bones what we want to create and that requires integration of body and mind.”—Susan McCulley
McCulley and two friends were already thinking about small workshops on art and mindfulness. “Then the election happened,” she says. HeARTful Action wants to help people navigate the new landscape in a way that is creative and mindful.
Charlottesville Gathers
Issue: Active bystander intervention
Event: Rally to support the Women’s March on Washington January 21 at IX Art Park
Supporters: The rally brought more than 2,000 pussy cap-wearing attendees
Info: facebook.com/CharlottesvilleGathers
Quote: “We intend to be a convener of training and inspirational events to equip Charlottesville and its citizens to be the capital of the resistance.”—Gail Hyder Wiley
Wiley joined up with teacher Jill Williams to organize the rally. At this point, she says it’s pretty much just her, but she’s ready to provide support to other groups.
Cville Rising
Issue: Clean energy implementation, pipelines
Current action: Working closely with Buckingham County’s Union Hill community and activist group Friends of Buckingham to prevent the construction of a noisy compressor station, which is being proposed in tandem with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.
Allies: Friends of Nelson, Friends
of Buckingham, Friends of
Augusta, EPIC, Together Cville
Supporters: 30 frequent volunteers; 300-person e-mail list
Info: cvillerising.com
Though the group didn’t officially form until the end of last year—after the
presidential election of a man who
supports the construction of major fracked gas pipelines, though a spokesperson says it was unrelated—Cville Rising has been operating under the radar for a year and a half. Its mission is to bring awareness and connect Charlottesville to the environmental woes in surrounding counties.
Equity and Progress in Charlottesville
Inspired by: Again, Bernie
Issue: Elect local candidates to make bold changes to eliminate racial and economic
disparities
Event: Held second meeting February 27 to find and support candidates to run for office
Supporters: About 150 showed up at first meeting
Info: epiccville.org
Quote: “We aimed exclusively at local issues and changing the power relationship.”—Jeff Fogel
EPIC was already in the works before the election, but “I think the response we’ve gotten is in large part a function of the election,” says Fogel, who is the group’s first candidate and is running for commonwealth’s attorney. EPIC boasts former city officials, including former mayor Dave Norris and former councilor Dede Smith, who are ready to support candidates who traditionally haven’t been part of the political process.
Mayor Mike Signer held a rally January 31 and declared Charlottesville the capital of the resistance. Unity and Security for America’s Jason Kessler held his own vocal counter-demonstration at the same event. Photo by Eze Amos
Unity and Security for America
Issue: Defending Western civilization while dismantling cultural Marxism
Events: Meetings every Wednesday at 7pm at the Central Library
Supporters:At least two [Its president, Jason Kessler, did not respond to requests for information.]
Mascot: Pepe the frog
Info: usactionpac.org
Quote: “[Wes Bellamy] then proceeded to attack the Robert E. Lee monument, which is of ethnic significance to Southern white people.”—Jason Kessler
Kessler, whose claim to fame is unearthing Bellamy’s vulgar tweets and petitioning to have him removed from office because of the tweets and his call to relocate Confederate statues, has attracted statewide white heritage protectors, including former Trump state campaign manager and candidate for governor Corey Stewart.
Indivisible Charlottesville holds weekly demonstrations at U.S. Rep. Tom Garrett’s Berkmar Crossing office. Property owners have complained about torn up landscaping and trash.
Eze Amos
While Tom Garrett carried the 5th District with 58 percent of the vote, his popularity didn’t seep into the Dem-majority Charlottesville area. In office less than a month, the new congressman has had hundreds of protesters show up every week at his Berkmar Crossing office, to the consternation of some of the business park’s owners and tenants.
Like the new president, whom he supported, Garrett has taken to Twitter, and some constituents are bothered by the tone of the tweets. Still more complain about Garrett holding Facebook town halls rather than addressing constituents face to face, and at least one citizen says Garrett has blocked him on Twitter.
And that’s all before his first month anniversary.
“It’s becoming a nuisance,” says Chuck Lebo, who owns a condo in the same building as Garrett’s in Berkmar Crossing. “I consider it private property. I have tenants that rent from me having a hard time finding spaces to park.”
Protesters who took part in the February 11 demonstration organized by Charlottesville NOW tore up grass and bushes and left trash, says Lebo.
Lebo faced a related private property issue before in 2005, when he managed Shoppers World, now known as 29th Place. Then-House of Delegates candidate Rich Collins was campaigning in the Whole Foods parking lot and refused to leave the privately owned center. Collins was charged with trespassing, and later acquitted on appeal.
The latest congressional office is not the only occasion the right to assemble and petition one’s government has clashed with property rights locally. After Democrat Tom Perriello took office in 2009, he rented space downtown in the rear of the Glass Building, which was the scene of frequent Tea Party protests, until the building’s owner booted them to the public sidewalk after an Americans for Prosperity bus took up eight spaces, for which other tenants paid $100 each and complained they couldn’t use.
Carole Thorpe, chair emeritus of the Jefferson Area Tea Party, says her group protested at Berkmar a few times after Robert Hurt was elected in 2010 and moved his office there. “Thiscrowd seems to be a little louder,” she says, noting that tea partiers “skewed older” and “behaved ourselves.”
She suggests congressmen put their offices somewhere centrally located where activists won’t impede others, because “that comes with territory.”
Garrett spokesperson Andrew Griffin says his office had gotten complaints, and after the first protest, property owners spoke with police about demonstrators blocking doors and parking lots. The second rally, he says, “was much more respectful of other tenants in the building.”
He adds, “[W]e welcome people to exercise their right to peacefully assemble and to protest.”
David Singerman with Indivisible Charlottesville, which plans weekly demonstrations at Berkmar Crossing, says his group is trying to find alternate parking and be respectful of business owners, but points out, “Congressman Garrett works for us. He’s put his office in a place that has insufficient parking and is not easily accessible by foot.”
He adds that on Twitter, Garrett “mocked” the protesters for seemingly having plenty of time to demonstrate during business hours.
Craig DuBose takes issue with a tweet in which Garrett referred to Berkeley protesters as “nazi fascists.”
“This has been a pattern of his on Twitter,” says DuBose. “To me it’s embarrassing and insulting. If you can’t grasp how totally inappropriate that is and how far beneath the dignity of the office it is, it’s completely astounding.”
Local realtor Jim Duncan says Garrett blocked him on his GarrettforVA Twitter account after he asked three times whether Garrett was going to seek to investigate the Trump administration’s ties to Russia.
“It’s more spiteful blocking,” Duncan says.
Griffin says no one has been blocked on Garrett’s official Rep_Tom_Garrett account unless they’ve issued death threats, but that the GarrettforVA account is personal. “If Tom chooses to block people on his personal account, it is perfectly within his rights to do so,” says Griffin in an e-mail.
Duncan, too, feels Garrett’s tone is unbecoming an elected official, and mentions a tweet in which Garrett responded to #clown by saying, “No need to bring [Senate minority leader] @chuckschumer into this!”
“That interaction is not becoming of the office,” he says.
Of course Garrett is not the only local politician whose tweets are causing controversy. Vice-Mayor Wes Bellamy’s vulgar tweets from a few years ago inspired a petition to recall him from office (see story on page 10).
Protesters have been clamoring for a town hall meeting with Garrett, and last week, he held events on Facebook February 13 and 15. That, too, drew a chorus of complaints.
“He gets to filter the questions,” says Indivisible’s Singerman. “He can stall and it’s harder to interrupt if he’s not answering.”
The timing of the video events is also a problem, says Singerman. “A lot of people in the 5th District don’t have Internet access, and 9pm is an inconvenient time when libraries and restaurants with Wi-Fi are closed.”
“It was a complete failure,” says DuBose of the first event. “The question I phoned in was not the question asked. They posed a general question that didn’t address the specific question I asked and allowed him to read from the script.”
“Facebook hall questions being changed simply isn’t true,” says Sullivan. “Some were paraphrased on the first town hall because we were reading them as they were rolling through the comment feed and with over 6,200 pouring in, I was jotting notes as quickly as possible.”
Because of the complaints, at the second Internet town hall, questions were “literally copied and pasted from Monday night so that there was no confusion, so for anyone claiming last night was not read correctly is being disingenuous at best and dishonest at worst,” says Griffin.
As for in-person town halls, Griffins says a schedule for future events will be put out, but he doesn’t have a time frame for when.
