Tag: Star Peterson

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Superintendent says Confederate imagery disrupts learning, but board chair postpones vote

The February 14 Albemarle County School Board meeting got heated after Chair Jonno Alcaro tabled a resolution that would restrict Confederate imagery on clothing in schools until the next meeting. Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County provided refreshments. Photo by Eze Amos

A resolution to ban Confederate imagery on clothing in Albemarle schools was back on the agenda at the February 14 Albemarle County School Board meeting. The last time the issue came up, in August, six people were arrested.

School board members were split on the issue, and again postponed a decision, to the dismay of both attendees and Superintendent Matt Haas, who said he was ready to ban the imagery because it created a disruption to learning.

Haas says that rationale, supported by a recent report from the School Health Advisory Board that concluded Confederate imagery might be harmful to students, could protect the board should a lawsuit ensue. But several school board members, citing a 2003 First Amendment lawsuit from a Jack Jouett sixth grader not allowed to wear his NRA T-shirt, expressed concerns about infringing on students’ rights.

At first, the meeting was business as usual. After commending eight Albemarle students on qualifying for the Daily Progress Regional Spelling Bee, board members listened to local middle schoolers attest to the importance of extracurricular civics programs.

Then came public comment. Most speakers, many with Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County, pressed the board to pass the resolution banning Confederate imagery. They delivered impassioned pleas stressing that minority children cannot feel safe around classmates wearing Confederate imagery, as audience members stood up in solidarity.

“To allow children to wear [Confederate imagery], carry it into a school, is no different from having them bring in swastikas,” said Matthew Christensen, a social worker. “I have seen the violence. I have seen the hatred. It has such an impact on our kids and it’s going to stay with them; it’s not going to go away when the image disappears.”

Star Peterson, one of the victims injured in the August 12 vehicular assault, spoke about the use of Confederate imagery during local hate rallies in 2017. “During the summer of hate…Richard Spencer and his people marched by a family festival with Confederate flags,” she said. “I can tell you I saw Confederate flags at a KKK rally. I can tell you I saw Confederate flags with my own eyes at the Unite the Right rally. There is no question of their significance.”

Before proceeding to debate, the board reviewed new items added to the Albemarle County schools budget, such as $30,000 earmarked for panic buttons. Then, it took a 30-minute break.

When the meeting reconvened, Assistant Superintendent Bernard Hairston submitted the resolution.

Board members Steve Koleszar, Kate Acuff, and Jason Buyaki, who wore a Confederate tie at one of the board’s previous discussions of the topic, said they felt the ban violated the First Amendment and failed to solve the underlying problem of racism.

Chair Jonno Alcaro implied he was reluctant to pass it for similar reasons, and decided to table the resolution until the next meeting, on February 28, to hear public concerns and allow the board more time to review the language.

Many in the audience were stewing. Amidst shouts of “coward” and “you’re supporting fascism,” Lara Harrison stood in front of the dais and flipped board members off with both hands.

After a minute of murmurs and muffled laughter, Alcaro noticed and asked her to sit down. “I’m not disrupting the meeting,” she replied, sitting on the steps. “I thought you were in favor of free speech.”

She returned to her seat after Alcaro threatened to have her removed.

Harrison had been arrested for trespassing during the special August 30 school board meeting concerning the same policy, though the charges were later dropped.

Audience interruptions continued throughout the meeting, but those heckling the board either stopped after being threatened with removal or stormed out of the auditorium.

Board member David Oberg supported the resolution, as did Graham Paige, who said he had evolved on the issue. Citing the School Health Advisory Board report, Katrina Callsen also supported the resolution.

“I think Confederate imagery should be banned from schools,” she said, comparing it to gang imagery. “Our city was the site of one of the largest hate rallies in recent history and the Confederate flag was a hate symbol.”

All board members in favor said they were willing to face a lawsuit but didn’t think it would happen because of the violent history of the flag in Charlottesville.

In response, Koleszar alluded to MLK. “You know, Martin Luther King warned about how the Northern liberal was more dangerous than the white racist,” he said.

“I am not a Northern liberal,” Paige retorted. The room erupted in laughter.

Haas said he would use his authority to prevent students from wearing Confederate imagery in the meantime. “I want a green light to work with the administrative team to have a plan to proactively tell families that the school board supports our current dress code,” he said. “I am now saying that you cannot wear these outfits to school.”

Nobody objected.

Before adjourning, Alcaro suggested the meeting prompted a change of heart. “I look forward to approving the anti-racism consent resolution in the next meeting,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot that I really need to think through.”

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Day 5: More victim and police testimony in James Fields’ trial

“That’s what someone’s eyes look like when they’re dead,” is the only thought that went through anti-racist activist Star Peterson’s mind as she saw Heather Heyer flying through the air.

Peterson had just been run over by a white supremacist in a Dodge Challenger on Fourth Street on August 12, 2017.

Peterson recounted her experience in testimony on the second day of evidence presented to the jury in the trial against James Fields, who’s charged with first-degree murder for killing Heyer, along with five counts of aggravated malicious wounding, three counts of malicious wounding, and one count of hit and run.

His attorneys have not disputed that he was the one driving the car that barrelled into the crowd that day, smashing into a parked Toyota Camry, which then crashed into a Honda Odyssey, before Fields backed up—running over Peterson and others again—and sped off.

Tadrint Washington, who drove the Camry, didn’t realize she’d been hit. She was caught up in the excitement of the activists joyfully chanting, singing, and claiming victory over the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who came to town to hold their Unite the Right rally that day.

“I never seen so many white people standing up for black people,” she testified. But then she heard a “big, big, big noise,” and “thought a bomb went off.” That was when the Challenger hit her.

She’d seen the car before. While describing the process of navigating around the downtown area, which had numerous road closures for the rally, she said the Challenger was right behind her. “Every turn I make, he’s making the same turns because the roads are blocked off,” she said. And as they were crossing the Downtown Mall on Fourth Street, she saw him stop and start backing up. She assumed this was because the oncoming crowd and the minivan already stopped at the bottom of the street meant it would be a while before any of the vehicles could proceed.

But once Fields slammed on the gas and hit her, she said, she believes she lost consciousness for a few moments. When she regained her vision, she said, “I remember opening my eyes and seeing someone on top of my car, and it freaked me out.”

Minutes before, Lizete Short, the driver of the Odyssey, had stopped her car where Fourth Street meets Water Street to let the crowd of demonstrators pass in front of her. When they turned up Fourth Street, streaming past her van on both sides, she parked and got out to capture a moment she said she was sure would go down in history.

But the next thing she knew, her camera phone was knocked out of her hand, her van had collided into her, she had been propelled onto its hood, and was “being dragged across the street.”

Wednesday Bowie, another victim, testified that she was knocked into a parked truck as the Challenger backed up.

“I got hung up on the trunk of the car. I remember thinking ‘okay, I’m getting hit by a car,’” she said, adding that she lost consciousness after smashing into the truck and being thrown several additional feet onto the ground.

Her pelvis was broken in six places, and a fragmented piece of it sliced her femoral artery, she said.

“I was bleeding out internally as I waited for the ambulance,” she told the jury, adding that she required emergency surgery at UVA. On her second day in the hospital, she had a metal bar called an external fixator drilled through her lower half to hold her pelvis in place.

She also suffered a fractured orbital socket on one side of her face, a broken tailbone, three broken vertebrae, multiple lacerations, and road rash. Her pelvis healed diagonally, so her gait is permanently affected, and her steps are now uneven.

The jury also heard from former Daily Progress photojournalist Ryan Kelly, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his iconic photo of the car hightailing it into the crowd. He described being on Fourth Street and seeing the Challenger stop midway down the street and start backing up.

“I heard screeching tires, the rev of an engine,” and then the car sped past him into the group of protesters. “People went flying. You heard thuds and screams and cries.”

Charlottesville Police Department Detective Jeremy Carper testified there were many “reddish brown stains,” or blood, found all over the Challenger, including on the windshield, the grill, the bumper, and on the Fourth Street asphalt. He also identified swabs of “soft tissue along the windshield” of the car.

The detective was assigned to hand out water and snacks to cops who were working that day, but was asked to respond to Monticello Avenue shortly after the car attack, where police took Fields into custody for a hit and run. That’s where Carper collected a water bottle that was likely thrown into the car during the commotion on Fourth Street, and a pair of sunglasses lodged under the rear spoiler.

He wore black gloves as he handled the evidence in court. He opened a brown bag with red tape to reveal the water bottle, and left the sunglasses inside their bag. The car’s grill was also present in the courtroom, wrapped in brown paper.

Carper said he then went to Fourth Street where he recovered the Challenger’s passenger side mirror, which was also covered in blood, and Heyer’s pants, which he said were cut in half as medics tried to revive her.

As Fields listened to the day’s testimony, he scribbled a few notes into a notepad. His face was expressionless. He wore a blue suit and black tie.

After introducing it in yesterday’s opening arguments, today prosecutors made available to the public a meme that Fields posted on Instagram on May 16, 2017, which shows a car plowing into a crowd of people, and says, “You have the right to protest but I’m late for work.”

The defense has argued that the meme is not political in nature. We’ll see what the jury thinks about that.

James Fields, who racked up 10 state charges after driving his car into a crowd on August 12, 2017, posted this meme on Instagram three months earlier. Courtesy of the city of Charlottesville
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Not healed: August 12 survivors ask for help

Tay Washington, who was sitting in her car on Fourth Street when it was struck by James Fields’ car on August 12, 2017, spoke at an event to raise money for Heal Charlottesville, which provides financial assistance to victims of the attack. EZE AMOS

By Jonathan Haynes

The vaulted sanctuary of First United Methodist Church fell silent Friday night as survivors of the vehicular assault that killed Heather Heyer spoke one by one about their paths to recovery. Survivors organized the event to raise money for Heal Charlottesville, a local charity that provides financial assistance to people harmed by Unite the Right protesters on August 11 and 12, 2017.

Kendall Bills, the evening’s emcee, opened the November 9 event by recounting the concussion she sustained after a Nazi punched her in the face. She warned that speakers would be describing white supremacist violence and would not take questions, then she reminded the audience that donation boxes were stationed on the lectern and near all the exits.

Victims recalled the assault in graphic detail. Tay Washington, an EMT, was sitting in her car on Fourth Street when it was struck by James Fields’ car. “I heard a big noise, like a bomb had gone off, then I opened my eyes and saw people tumbling over the car,” she said, embracing her sister as tears trickled down her cheeks.

She also said that, as someone from Mississippi, she wasn’t used to seeing so many white people show up in support of black Americans.

Many survivors said they were initially hesitant to accept financial help from Heal Charlottesville. Another victim, Lisa, who did not give her last name, said she felt like she did not deserve money from the fund, but was prompted to accept it after she realized her insurance only covered 30 physical therapy sessions.

“When you feel like you’re not paying for yourself, you worry about becoming a problem,” said Washington, who has not been able to return to work. “It feels wrong to go and ask for more because you found a new doctor.”

The inability to return to work was a common theme. Star Peterson, who suffered injuries in one of her ribs, two parts of her back, and both of her legs, hasn’t been able to return to work after five surgeries and infections caused by the surgical metal doctors implanted in her leg.

Trauma also played a role. “I live with physical scars, though sometimes the more painful scars are mental,” said Courtney Commander, a friend of Heyer’s who went to the August 2017 rally with her. For her part, Al Bowie was skeptical of receiving help after spending time in the hospital, which she found more traumatic than the attack itself.

While it wasn’t mentioned at the event, many survivors of the August 12 attacks have been bracing themselves for James Fields’ upcoming trial. The 21-year-old from Ohio, who is accused of driving into a crowd of protesters, will begin a three-week trial for first-degree murder and malicious woundings in Charlottesville Circuit Court on November 26. He also faces 30 federal hate crime charges.

Despite all the pain and trauma, the sense of community that emerged after the attacks was a common thread. “I had the privilege of confronting fascism alongside some of the most beautiful people I’ve met in my life,” said Peterson. Bills echoed this sentiment, saying, “The most powerful thing of the summer was what my friends were able to bring out of me. That my sister, community, best friends stepped up with me.”

Still, the tone was urgent. Heal Charlottesville would need more funding to continue its work. Peterson implored people to donate to the organization, which paid for her rent, groceries, and medical bills in the aftermath of the assault. “They don’t have enough to help victims for as long as they need,” she said. “I want to ask Charlottesville to keep walking by my side.”

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Activists stop traffic, arrested in late night protest

Community activist Star Peterson, a victim of the August 12 car attack, was arrested when she parked her wheelchair in the middle of Market Street, faced traffic and threw two middle fingers into the air. Photo by Eze Amos

Last night, Charlottesville police arrested about eight community activists who were protesting yesterday’s conviction of Corey Long, the man they say defended the community on August 12 when law enforcement failed to do so.

A couple dozen activists gathered in Justice Park around 9:30pm, and with signs and banners in tow, began marching around the Downtown Mall, chanting “Corey Long did nothing wrong” and “Cops and the Klan go hand in hand.”

By the time they made it to the west end of the mall and turned right to march down Ridge McIntire Road, they had gained the attention of police in at least two vehicles and on two bikes. As some marchers spilled off the sidewalk and onto the street, police demanded they step back onto the sidewalk, nudging activist Nic McCarthy as he shouted, “Corey Long protected us! Where were you?”

Nic McCarthy. Photo by Eze Amos

McCarthy was one of the people arrested and escorted to the local jail, after their procession made it to Market Street, where they stopped traffic by, again, refusing to get out of the street.

Nearly 20 police officers were present on Market Street and the area was awash in blue and red police lights as cops and about 20 activists engaged in screaming matches. Approximately 15 other marchers immediately obeyed police and stepped out of the roadway.

Veronica Fitzhugh, a known community activist, was one who did not. She lay in the middle of a Market Street crosswalk until multiple police pulled her up from under her underarms and dragged her to one of their squad vans—her knees scraping the ground as they removed her from the street. Fitzhugh and McCarthy were also arrested for obstructing free passage at the July 8 Ku Klux Klan rally in Justice Park when they, along with several other protesters, locked arms in front of the gate that the Klan was planning to enter the park through.

Veronica Fitzhugh. Photo by Eze Amos

Police demanded that C-VILLE freelance photographer Eze Amos, who was documenting the protest and arrests, step out of the roadway. He argued that he was a journalist, and that pedestrians are allowed to walk in the crosswalk.

“I can take photos for God’s sake,” Amos said. “That’s my job.”

To that, the officer said Amos was not permitted to walk back and forth across the crosswalk while officers were arresting people there. Amos was not arrested.

Police also arrested Star Peterson, a victim of the August 12 car attack who parked her wheelchair in the middle of Market Street, facing traffic, and threw two middle fingers into the air. She was given a summons, and after eventually moving a bit further down the street, she did it again. This time, police wheeled her out of the street, and called an ambulance to haul her to jail.

Star Peterson. Photo by Eze Amos

As the remaining activists waited for the night to play out, one could be heard saying to the crowd, “Y’all want me to go to Lowe’s and get torches? They’ll let us march then.”

All activists who were taken to jail were released by 1am, according to The Daily Progress.

The other activists arrested were Eleanor Ruth Myer Sessoms, James Alan Swanson, Jenna Hochman and Keval Mandar Bhatt.

Photos by Eze Amos

Updated June 13 at 9:30am with a list of people who were arrested.

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Activist group encourages resistance—to grand juries

Solidarity Cville encourages August 12 victims who are subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury to not cooperate. Staff photo

“I was already run over by a car, I will not be bullied by the federal government,” said Star Peterson, a victim of the August 12 vehicular attack in which a white supremacist bowled over a group of counterprotesters with a dark gray Dodge Challenger.

Peterson was among about 20 members of activist group Solidarity Cville, who gathered in front of the United States District Court on West Main Street on December 13, to protest what they call state repression.

The group says at least two victims of the summer’s Unite the Right rally have been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury about the events of the tragic day that left three people dead and dozens injured.

An assistant U.S. attorney has justified the subpoenas by saying he’s only seeking to indict the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who took over the town, such as James Fields, the alleged driver of the Dodge, according to Ibby Han of Solidarity Cville.

“Yet, we don’t know if they are also seeking to indict the anti-racist activists who defended our community this past summer,” she said at the protest.

U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Brian McGinn offered a written statement dated August 13, and said the office is unable to comment further because it is an ongoing investigation.

“The Richmond FBI Field Office, the Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia have opened a civil rights investigation into the circumstances of the deadly vehicular incident that occurred earlier Saturday morning,” said U.S. Attorney Rick Mountcastle in the statement. “The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence and will ensure that the investigation is conducted in a fair, thorough and impartial manner.”

Han says people who have been subpoenaed and refuse to cooperate with the federal prosecutor and grand jury face serious jail time.

“The survivors of a terror attack should not be subjected to 18 months in jail simply for refusing to participate in the unjust process of a grand jury,” she said, adding that people who are called to testify aren’t allowed to have their attorney present in the room. “The prosecutor may ask any and all questions they deem relevant, and they are not obligated to reveal the subject of their investigation.”

Legal expert Dave Heilberg says if a witness doesn’t show up to testify when summoned, she can be held in contempt and sanctioned, possibly in jail. If a witness appears and refuses to testify before the grand jury and invokes her Fifth Amendment rights, she is sometimes given immunity and required to answer questions anyway, even if incriminating.

The Fifth Amendment protects people from being forced to be witnesses against themselves.

“If they then refuse to answer, they can be held in contempt and face the same sanctions,” Heilberg says.

In Han’s plea for subpoenaed victims to not cooperate, she claims grand juries have historically “been used as a tool of political repression to surveil and incriminate social movements.”

And so far, federal prosecutors have “backed down” when at least one victim refused to be cooperative, she said. “Resistance works.”

Advises Heilberg, “Nobody who is subpoenaed as a grand jury witness for any reason should follow the unqualified and unauthorized legal advice of any third party or organization.”