Tag: Rise Above Movement

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In brief: UVA’s enslaved laborers memorial, SLAPP relief request, ECC hits reset, and more

The opening of the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers is meant to invite people inside to gather on the small, round lawn for celebration, commemoration, or contemplation.

First glimpse of enslaved laborers memorial

On July 16—just as we were sending last week’s issue to press—community members got to peek behind the construction fencing of the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at UVA, adjacent to the Rotunda and across the street from Bodo’s on the Corner.

Made of stone and 80 feet in diameter, the Freedom Ring, as it’s called, is a dual circle with a single opening, symbolizing a broken shackle. The opening is meant to invite people inside to gather on the small, round lawn for celebration, commemoration, or contemplation.

The Charlottesville community (including likely descendants of the people the memorial honors) had a say in the design. During a July 11 conversation at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, Mabel O. Wilson, design team member and architectural historian at Columbia University, said that folks insisted the memorial express some of the many dualities of the African American experience.

For example, the monument’s exterior wall, made from Virginia granite, is textured to evoke scarring—a symbol of both the terrible violence of slavery in the American South and ceremonial beautification practices honoring life achievements in some West African cultures.

It’s estimated that 5,000 enslaved people built and helped maintain the university before emancipation. The names of approximately 3,000 of them will be engraved in the polished stone on the inside of the ring. Memory markers that can be engraved at a later date will honor those whose identities are not yet recovered.

Construction on the monument began in January, and when it’s done in the fall, it will be the second memorial to African American history erected in Charlottesville this year. A marker commemorating the lynching of John Henry James was dedicated July 12 in Court Square. The plaque is part of an Equal Justice Initiative to make more visible the stories of racial terror throughout the United States.

And, the heritage center is fundraising for a third local monument to the African American experience: an abstract sculpture by Melvin Edwards memorializing Vinegar Hill.

C-VILLE and ACLU attorneys ask for suit dismissal

Attorneys representing C-VILLE Weekly, news editor Lisa Provence, and UVA professor Jalane Schmidt filed motions July 22 asking that a defamation lawsuit by Edward Dickinson Tayloe II be dismissed. Tayloe is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the city and City Council for its votes to remove Confederate monuments, and he alleges an article in C-VILLE about the plaintiffs in the case defamed him “by implication.”

Schmidt, who is represented by the ACLU of Virginia, says in a statement, “As a public historian, being able to give accurate historical context regarding current events is crucial. That is why I am working with the ACLU to defend my right to free speech.”

The ACLU’s court filing says Tayloe “seeks to censor the opinion of those [who] question both his support for the Confederate statues and his motivations for defending them,” and that his suit sends “a clear message to others who wish to opine on matters of public concern” that if they disagree or critique him, they, too “will face the threat of a lawsuit.”

C-VILLE’s filing says, “Not a single fact in the article is alleged to be false.”

All defendants are asking the judge to award attorneys’ fees under Virginia’s SLAPP—strategic lawsuit against public participation—statute.

Quote of the week

“Send him back.” —Virginia House and Senate Democrats say they’ll boycott the 400th commemorative session in Jamestown on July 30 if President Trump attends

In brief

Inciters sentenced

On July 19, a federal judge found three Rise Above Movement members from California guilty of violence they committed as part of their conspiracy to riot—but not for hate crimes—for incidents related to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017. RAM leader Benjamin Daley was sentenced to 37 months, while Thomas Gillen and Michael Miselis received 33 and 27 months, respectively.

Emergency management

The board of the beleaguered Emergency Communications Center, whose director abruptly resigned in March and where the employees who handle 911 calls had complained about excessive overtime and serious understaffing, announced a new executive director July 18. Larry “Sonny” Saxton Jr. has 25 years in public safety in Missouri and will start August 26.

Paycheck ends

Former Charlottesville police chief Al Thomas, who resigned effective immediately in December 2017 following the events of August 12, continued to collect his $134,000 salary until July 15, NBC29 reports.

Caplin dies

Mortimer Caplin, whose name adorns several facilities at UVA, died July 15 at 103. Caplin was a UVA law professor emeritus and taught 33 years at the law school. He served as IRS commissioner under JFK, and was the only chief tax collector to appear on the cover of Time magazine.

License of champions

UVA basketball fans can keep the national championship thrill going with license plates proclaiming this year’s NCAA tournament win. The plates are limited editions, and the DMV says don’t wait around if you want one.

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In brief: City digs in, winemaker dies, rioters plead, and more

CRB member Rosia Parker wondered why police Chief RaShall Brackney couldn’t find time on her reportedly empty calendar to meet.

Truth in scheduling: Progress joins City v. Civilian Review Board fray

A Daily Progress reporter was a topic of discussion during public comment at the May 6 City Council meeting, following Nolan Stout’s story earlier that day that police Chief RaShall Brackney’s calendar seemed to contradict claims that she was unavailable to meet with the Police Civilian Review Board.

CRB member Rosia Parker thanked Stout for his reporting, while Mayor Nikuyah Walker blamed Stout for the escalating tension between the chief and the review board. Councilor Wes Bellamy said he had “personal issues” with the article, and defended Brackney and her calendar. Police gadfly Jeff Fogel yelled at Bellamy to “not punk out,” and Bellamy replied, “You’re the last one to tell me to punk out.”

The latest outburst follows a bizarre April 26 city press release that accused a CRB member of lying about Brackney refusing to meet with the board. That was followed by an even weirder April 30 retraction of the falsehood allegation, which instead pointed the finger at the Progress’ reporting. The paper stands by its story.

And in the latest deepening of trenches in the war of words, city spokesman Brian Wheeler told Stout his Freedom of Information Act request for emails between Brackney or her secretary and City Council or CRB members, and emails between councilors and CRB members, would cost $3,000 and require a $700 deposit. Wheeler refused to break down the costs, which are unprecedented in C-VILLE Weekly’s experience with FOIA.

Megan Rhyne with Virginia Coalition for Open Government says this is only the second time she’s seen a local government refuse to detail its alleged costs, and tells the DP, “I don’t think it’s very transparent.”

Quote of the week

“I believe we have more than enough mandatory minimum sentences—more than 200—in Virginia state code.” Governor Ralph Northam on why he won’t sign any more such bills, which he calls punitive, discriminatory, and expensive

In brief

Carbon friendlier

Charlottesville’s carbon emissions per household—11.2 tons annually—are a ton above the national average. City Council voted unanimously at its May 6 meeting to approve a climate action plan that includes a goal of 45 percent carbon emissions reduction by 2030, and total carbon neutrality by 2050.

Wine pioneer dies

David King. file photo

 

David King, patriarch of King Family Vineyards, died May 2 after what the family calls a “hard-fought” battle with cancer. The 64-year-old was a past chair of the Virginia Wine Board, a polo player, pilot, and reserve deputy with the Albemarle County Sheriff’s Office search and rescue division. The family will host a celebration of life on June 14 at their Crozet family farm from 7:30-9:30pm.

Rioters plead

The last two members of the now-defunct California white supremacist group Rise Above Movement, who traveled to Charlottesville for the August 2017 Unite the Right rally to brawl with counterprotesters, pleaded guilty May 3 in U.S. District Court. RAM founder Benjamin Drake Daley, 26, from Redondo Beach, and Michael Paul Miselis, 30, from Lawndale, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to riot. Fellow RAMmers Cole White and Thomas Gillen previously pleaded guilty.

The Guys

Unrelated Bridget Guy and Kyle Guy got top UVA athletics honors at the Hoos Choice Awards May 1. Bridget, from Greensburg, Pennsylvania, is an all-American pole vaulter who was undefeated this season. Indianapolis-native Kyle was named Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Final Four, in part for his sangfroid in firing off three free throws in a row to beat Auburn 63-62.

Flaggers appeal

Confederate battle flag-loving Virginia Flaggers were in circuit court May 2 to appeal a Louisa Board of Zoning Appeals decision that the 120-foot pole they raised on I-64 in March 2018 to fly the “Charlottesville I-64 Spirit of Defiance Battle Flag” exceeded the county’s maximum of 60 feet. The judge has not yet issued a ruling.

Cruel and unusual

The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Virginia’s death row inmates, who spend years alone in a small cell for 23 to 24 hours a day. The justices said the inmates face a “substantial risk” of serious psychological and emotional harm in violation of the Eighth Amendment in the case filed by local attorney Steve Rosenfield.

UVA student sentenced

When former UVA student Cayden Jacob Dalton drunkenly abducted and strangled his ex-girlfriend in August 2018, she told the judge “there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to die.” Now, he’ll serve one and a half years for the crime, with the rest of his 15-year sentence suspended.

Show us the money

With the first campaign finance reports filed March 31, we learned who’s pulling in the bucks ahead of the June 11 City Council Democratic primary,  as well as the funds raised by independents Paul Long and Bellamy Brown.

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Riot acts: FBI arrests four white supremacists identified by journalists after August 12 violence

Benjamin Daley was identified more than a year ago as one of the white supremacists assualting people at the Unite the Right rally. Federal charges were filed last week. ProPublica

The photo shows a pale, skinny young man in a white shirt and dark sunglasses, face contorted and veins in his head and neck popping as he appears to throttle a dark-haired woman. They are standing in front of the parking lot of the First United Methodist Church on Second Street NE in Charlottesville. It’s August 12, 2017.

Last week, the man in this photo, Benjamin Drake Daley, 25, and three companions were arrested on federal rioting charges, almost a year after Daley was first identified by the nonprofit media organization ProPublica. As it reported on October 19, 2017, Daley and another California man, Thomas Walter Gillen, 34, are part of a violent white supremacist group called the Rise Above Movement, and had been involved in violence and rioting at several California rallies before they made their way to Charlottesville.

Later reporting by ProPublica also identified two other RAM members, Michael Paul Miselis, 29, and Cole Evan White, 24, involved in the Charlottesville violence.

All four were arrested in California and charged with rioting and conspiring to riot, stemming from both the tiki-torch march through UVA Grounds on August 11 and the downtown brawls on August 12, according the Department of Justice.

At a Charlottesville press conference October 2, U.S. Attorney Thomas Cullen described them as a “militant white supremacist group” and “serial rioters” who came “ready to do street battle,” and who committed multiple acts of violence here.

In an interview, ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson said RAM was a “sort of post-skinhead group that models itself on neo-fascists from Europe.” Unlike many of the current crop of white supremacists who spend their time online writing screeds or creating memes, RAM members go the gym and “have a clean cut, athletic look,” says Thompson. They’ve absorbed members from some of the most dangerous groups, he says, and are on the “really violent, street-based edge of the neo-white supremacist movement.”

The group was featured in a ProPublica/Frontline documentary called “Documenting Hate: Charlottesville” that aired on PBS August 7.

On October 2, Cullen gave a nod to the ProPublica and Frontline efforts, but said the federal investigation began more than a year ago, immediately following August 12. Part of the more than yearlong delay in filing charges was because the FBI and Virginia State Police had to sift through “an incredible volume and amount of digital evidence,” as well as press accounts—more than what investigators had at the Boston Marathon bombing, said Cullen. “We’ve laid out a pretty compelling account,” he added.

According to the complaint, RAM propaganda incorporates “fascistic themes of emasculated young white men needing to reclaim their identities through learning to fight and engaging in purifying violence,” which they had done at pro-Trump political rallies-turned-riots in Berkeley and Huntington Beach, California.

The four took part in the “Jews will not replace us” torch march through UVA, and White can be seen “using his torch as a weapon on at least two occasions during the melee,” says the complaint. And on Facebook, Daley boasted of hitting five people, but described the rally the next day as “a HUGE failure.”

On August 12, Daley and his pals can be seen in videos punching, kicking, and head-butting counterprotesters on Second Street NE between High and Jefferson streets, according to court documents. White allegedly head-butted a collar-wearing clergyman and a female counterprotester, whose bloodstained face is included in a photograph in the complaint.

Miselis, a doctoral student at UCLA with a U.S. government security clearance, “appears to be shoving an African American to the ground and then striking him,” says the complaint. It also notes that in the same ProPublica video, Miselis kicked the man as he’s falling to the ground, while Daley is seen grabbing a female counterprotester by the neck and “body slamming her to the ground.” Miselis, who after the rally went back to work as an engineer at defense contractor Northrop Grumman, lost his job a day after being exposed in the ProPublica/Frontline documentary.     

ProPublica “did a fantastic job in piecing together some of the organized activities that occurred on August 11 and August 12, and the work that they did was certainly reviewed by our office as a starting point to understand a little bit about this particular group,” said Cullen.

To date, the majority of the white supremacists arrested on August 11- and 12-related charges, including three of the four men arrested for attacking local resident DeAndre Harris in the Market Street Parking Garage, were first identified by journalists and activists like The Intercept’s Shaun King, who combed through photos, video footage, and social media posts.

Local activist Jalane Schmidt, a religious studies professor at UVA, says that even before the Unite the Right rally, in hopes of getting the permit revoked, activists gave police a 22-page dossier identifying people who had posted violent intentions online before coming to Charlottesville.

“It’s just ridiculous,” she said of the delay in the arrests. “There’s been a bunch of people who’ve been identified.”

While Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney was not available for comment, Sergeant Tony Newberry says he’s been working on finding the remaining two men who were videotaped assaulting Harris but have not been identified. The department has issued national press releases and put the men’s images on the A&E show “Live PD.”

“We’ve done everything we can to identify those two,” he says.

Speaking to the federal arrests, Cullen says a prosecutor in his office “literally has worked on nothing else since August 12.”

“We had to convince ourselves the attacks were without provocation,” he said—and that they were not protected First Amendment activities.

When asked why the four were not charged under hate crime laws, Cullen said federal riot statutes seemed more appropriate, but he did not rule out consideration of other charges—or other arrests.

Legal expert David Heilberg says hate crimes are harder to prove than conspiracy or rioting. “The feds charge with what they’re pretty sure they can prove.”

However, federal prosecutors often make additional charges, called superseding indictments, using the same set of facts if other witnesses come forward, says Heilberg.

“This case should serve as another example of the Department of Justice’s commitment to protecting life, liberty, and civil rights of all our citizens,” said Cullen, who warned, “Any individual who has or plans to travel to this district with the intent to engage in acts of violence will be prosecuted and held accountable for those actions.”

Adam Lee, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Richmond division, took the opportunity to make a plug for law enforcement: “It is important for communities like Charlottesville to remember who the good guys are—who is sworn to protect them—and support them in their mission,” he said.

That might be a hard sell for those who watched city and state police officers stand by as white supremacists and anti-fascists engaged in open violence. The independent investigation of the 2017 events, released in December, found that “law enforcement failed to intervene in violent disorders and did not respond to requests for assistance.”

The four men are being held without bond and Cullen expects them to be transported to Charlottesville and heard before a magistrate judge by this week. Each man faces 10 years in prison if convicted of both charges.

 

daley complaint