Tag: unite the right

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Day 7: Witnesses describe Fields’ arrest

The prosecution rested today in the trial of James Alex Fields Jr. and the defense began its case, both sides focusing on the defendant during and after his arrest August 12, 2017.

In prosecution videos of Fields after he was taken into police custody, he repeatedly apologized, asked about any injuries, and hyperventilated for more than two minutes during his interrogation. The jury also heard recordings of two phone calls from jail between Fields and his mother, in which he seemed much less apologetic.

In a December 7, 2017, call, Fields can be heard asking his mom an unintelligible question about “that one girl who died.” We can assume that this is Heather Heyer, whom he’s on trial for murdering when he drove his gray Dodge Challenger into a crowd on Fourth Street.

He then mentions that Heyer’s mother has been giving “speeches and shit,” and “slandering” him. “She’s one of those anti-white communists,” Fields says on the recording. And his mother, seemingly reacting to his insensitivity, points out that Heyer died, and that her mother loved her.

Responds Fields, “It doesn’t fucking matter, she’s a communist. It’s not up for questioning. She is. She’s the enemy.”

In a March 21, 2018, phone call between Fields and his mom, Fields complained that he was “not doing anything wrong” on August 12, “and then I get mobbed by a violent group of terrorist for defending my person.”

And he claimed “antifa” were waving ISIS flags at the Unite the Right rally. His mom expressed some kind of intelligible dissent, and suggested he stop talking. “They’re communist, mother, they do support them,” he countered.

Also entered into evidence were text messages between Fields and his mom before the rally. On August 8, he told her he’d gotten the weekend off to go to the rally, and on August 10, she responded with, “Be careful.” And on August 11, he said, “We’re not the [ones] who need to be careful.” He attached an image of Adolf Hitler along with it.

Before resting his case, Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania also played bodycam footage from Detective Steve Young, who appeared on the scene of Monticello Avenue and Blenheim Road as Fields was being detained.

In the audio of the interaction, Fields appeared to be cooperating with police, and repeated multiple iterations of “I’m sorry.”

When Young asked what he was sorry for, he said, “I didn’t want to hurt people, but I thought they were attacking me. …Even if they are [unintelligible], I still feel bad for them. They’re still people.”

He said he had an empty suitcase—”a family heirloom”—in his trunk, and asked police not to throw it away.

Fields also indicated leg pain, and when asked if he needed medical attention, he said, “I’d prefer if they see to the people who were rioting.”

He asked multiple times about any injuries sustained when he drove his car into the crowd on Fourth Street. And once he was taken to the Charlottesville Police Department for interrogation, he finally got his answer.

“There are people with severe injuries. I know one has passed away,” answered Detective Brady Kirby, as heard on the recording. For the next two or three minutes, Fields can be heard hyperventilating. He simultaneously cries while struggling to breathe.

At this point in the courtroom, Fields sat hunched over between his two attorneys, watching the video intently and quickly flicking his pen back and forth. Usually seated to the right of his lawyers, he traded places with one of them for a clearer view.  

Once at the local jail, Fields could be heard telling the magistrate in another recording that as he pulled onto Fourth Street, he had his GPS turned on and he was just trying to go home. He saw two cars stopped at the bottom of the street and began backing up. He said he felt a “really weird” emotion once he saw the counterprotesters.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said, and never mentioned driving into them.

He also requested to have his face washed before getting his mugshot taken.

After the commonwealth rested, defense attorney John Hill moved to strike all of the charges against his client except for the hit-and-run. He said the prosecutors failed to prove that Fields showed intent to kill and actual malice. But Judge Rick Moore overruled the motions, and said, “I don’t know what intent he could have had other than to kill people.”

The defense called four witnesses, including Deputy Paul Critzer, who chased Fields in his cruiser and eventually cuffed him.

Critzer said he followed Fields for almost a mile, and Fields eventually pulled over on Monticello Avenue. The deputy then instructed him to put his hands outside the window, and started moving toward the Challenger when Fields drew his hands back inside and smashed on the gas. Critzer then chased him for what he described as less than a football field of length before Fields stopped again, and following Critzer’s commands, he threw his hands and keys outside of his window.

That’s when Critzer approached him from the passenger side—another officer had met Fields on the driver’s side—and slapped the cuffs on him.

Deputy Fred Kirschnick described Fields as “very quiet” “very wide-eyed” and “sweating profusely,” as he waited to be taken to the police department for questioning. He smelled a “light to moderate” stench of urine on Fields, which matches the description of a yellow stain on his shirt that others had testified to.

Lunsford also called city officer Tammy Shifflet, who was stationed at the intersection of Fourth and Market streets that morning, and who left her post before the car attack because things had gotten too chaotic.

She said she called her commander to ask for assistance, and he directed her to meet up with other officers. There was a small barricade she described as a “sawhorse” blocking Fourth Street when she left.

The defense is expected to call approximately eight more witnesses. Closing arguments could happen Thursday with a jury verdict as soon as Friday, according to the judge.

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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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Center of conspiracy: Defamation suit targets Alex Jones

Elizabeth Wydra (center), president of D.C.’s Constitutional Accountability Center, says defendants can’t hide behind the First Amendment when alleging bogus conspiracy theories about her client, local man Brennan Gilmore (right), to a national audience. Staff photo

Infowars founder Alex Jones has made a career out of broadcasting anti-government and right-wing conspiracy theories on his website and various radio shows. Last year, he put local man Brennan Gilmore in his crosshairs, alleging that the Charlottesville musician is a deep state operative on George Soros’ personal payroll who helped orchestrate the August 12, 2017, car attack. But Gilmore is fighting back with a federal defamation lawsuit, which he filed last spring.

Attorneys for Jones and multiple other defendants were in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia on November 13 to argue motions to dismiss the lawsuit. They say Gilmore’s crew filed the lawsuit in the wrong court, and moreover, that their clients’ actions were protected by the First Amendment.

If Gilmore’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s taken on several roles across town, including playing guitar in Wild Common, being Tom Perriello’s chief of staff during the Democrat’s gubernatorial run, and filming a video that immediately went viral of a Dodge Challenger ramming into a group of counterprotesters at the August 2017 Unite the Right white supremacist rally.

It’s that video that has made him a target for right-wing conspiracy theories allegedly created by Jones and other defendants, who are listed as Lee Stranahan, Lee Ann McAdoo, Scott Creighton, James Hoft, Derrick Wilburn, former Florida Republican congressman Allen B. West, and Free Speech Systems, LLC.

Defense attorney Andrew Grossman drew specific attention to an August 15 interview of former Breitbart News employee Stranahan by Infowars reporter McAdoo, in which they suggest that Gilmore’s involvement in the car attack was intended to stage a coup to overthrow the president.

Grossman, who came from Washington, D.C., called it “the kind of exaggerated rhetoric that can not be taken literally,” and suggested that such hyperbole is often used in the news.

But the plaintiffs don’t agree, and allege that Jones’ claims of thorough fact-checking can’t be true.

“Fact-based journalism is essential to our democracy, because it provides citizens with objective, reality-based information on issues of public concern,” says their lawsuit. “Defendants are not fact-based journalists. Defendants spread lies to construct false narratives that terrify a gullible audience, all in a desperate attempt to generate revenue and momentum for a hateful agenda.”

Grossman said plaintiffs were drawing their own conclusions about what Jones meant by some of his statements. “That’s not how defamation works,” the attorney said. “You can’t sue someone over an alleged interpretation.”

He also said that because Gilmore is a public figure, the judge must find that defendants committed actual malice to classify their statements as defamatory.

But Elizabeth Wydra, who is the president of the Constitutional Accountability Center in D.C. and one of several attorneys representing Gilmore, said it was the defendants who made Gilmore a public figure by their outrageous claims against him.

Outside the courthouse, she said, “We shouldn’t have everyday citizens dragged through the mud—dragged into the spotlight—simply because they happened to witness something that is of public interest.”

She said folks like Jones and other defendants shouldn’t be able to hide behind the First Amendment when they publish “terrible claims,” such as the one connecting her client to the murder of Heather Heyer.

“The law does not protect that,” says Wydra. “There are consequences when you speak and act in a way that creates harm to a person like Mr. Gilmore, who suffered threats. He’s suffered harassment, he’s suffered harm to his reputation.”

Added Gilmore, “I just want to ensure that the next person who finds himself in that position, they don’t have to suffer the same injury. That’s why we’re here today.”

Manassas-based defense attorney Aaron Walker, who represents about half a dozen of the defendants, told reporters that a ruling in favor of Gilmore could be the beginning of the “death of the freedom of the press.”

“This is a dangerous case, to be blunt,” said Walker, and taking a dig at the plaintiffs’ stance on his clients, he said, “They just don’t like their opinions.”

To be fair, neither does he. On the topic of Jones, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has called “the most prolific conspiracy theorist in America,” he said, “I dislike him, personally.”

Judge Norman Moon has not yet ruled on whether the lawsuit will proceed. Jones, meanwhile, is embroiled in multiple other defamation lawsuits filed by relatives of children killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, after Jones falsely claimed that the shooting was staged by the government and that the parents of the murdered children were “crisis actors.”

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Too risky: Blakney accepts plea deal to avoid incarceration

After being pepper sprayed, spat on, and called racial slurs, a detective testified that Donald Blakney admitted to taking his anger out on a man he associated with the white supremacists and neo-Nazis in town on August 12.

His lawyer painted a picture of a black father in his early 50s, the sole caretaker of his child with autism, who doesn’t have a computer or read the news, and who came to the Downtown Mall on August 12, 2017, to panhandle for the extra money he needed to buy his son’s medication.

Defense attorney David Baugh said his client, Donald Blakney, never expected to witness the largest gathering of white supremacists in modern history when he went downtown that day. And after being seen as “subhuman,” called a “nigger,” pepper sprayed, and spat on, he got angry—and decided to retaliate.

At a March hearing in Charlottesville General District Court, Eric Mattson, a self-proclaimed Constitutionalist from Arkansas, testified that he was carrying a rolled up American flag when Blakney approached him from behind and beat him over the head with a stick. It broke Mattson’s sunglasses, and caused him to black out for a moment, he said.

And when Mattson, who traveled 16 hours to Charlottesville, went back to his hotel room on August 12, he said he saw footage of Blakney assaulting him on national news.

Almost half a year later, in January, Blakney was charged with malicious wounding. Detective David Stutzman testified in March that when he visited Blakney at his home, Blakney admitted to taking his anger out on the man he associated with the white supremacists and neo-Nazis. The detective said Blakney immediately felt remorse, and asked if Mattson was okay.

In Charlottesville Circuit Court on November 6, Blakney sat solemnly, with one hand gripping his cane and his eyes low.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania cited Blakney’s sincerity as one reason for offering him a plea deal that would downgrade the felony charge to misdemeanor assault, suspend any jail time, and omit any associated fines. He added that a jail sentence would prevent Blakney from taking care of his noncommunicative son. Platania also said the victim had requested Blakney receive no time behind bars.

Platania and Baugh had very frank discussions about how to proceed, how Baugh planned to argue his case if it went to trial, and what the best outcome would be, according to the prosecutor.

Ultimately, Blakney felt he couldn’t risk going to jail if a jury convicted him of malicious wounding, and decided to take the deal, according to his lawyer and spiritual adviser.

It’s a compromise that keeps him home, but one his supporters don’t think is just.

“Mr. Blakney is a man who loves his family, a man who allowed himself to be unjustly treated so that he could be with, and care for, his family,” says Pastor Phil Woodson, of the First United Methodist Church. “He couldn’t fight for justice because justice is not guaranteed, especially for people of color, and he couldn’t risk it…and so justice passed him by.”

Circuit Court Judge Rick Moore has found three white supremacists from out of town guilty of malicious wounding for their actions at the Unite the Right rally, and two are serving six- and eight-year prison sentences. Perhaps it’s not surprising that the judge took time to mull over the plea deal that Baugh and Platania presented to him for the local man.

But Moore eventually approved it—adding that he thought “long and hard,” and also noting the difference in Blakney’s behavior versus the others.

“A lot of people tried to hide or lie,” said Moore. “And he did show remorse.”

Looking at Blakney, he said, “Maybe I’m naive, but I believe what’s been told to me. …I hope this is truly a one-time experience for you.”

Blakney and his family have received death threats since August 12, and were frightened by police who showed up unannounced to investigate the threats, according to the pastor who sat in the gallery in support of the man he calls his friend.

Says Woodson, “It is my hope and prayer that Mr. Blakney and his family will be able to move on from all this, that their fear subsides, and that they never have to go through this again.”

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Found guilty: Theologian banned from UVA for life appeals decision

Anti-racist activist Eric Martin was found guilty of trespassing in UVA’s law library, where he entered and refused to leave a private room where Jason Kessler was studying. He’s appealing the conviction. Contributed photo

When about 40 protesters gathered at the University of Virginia School of Law library April 25 to chase off Jason Kessler, one man was arrested—and it wasn’t the one who brought hundreds of torch-wielding white supremacists to Grounds.

Eric Martin, a local activist and theologian, entered the private room where Kessler was studying, sat down, and quietly began reading The Rise and Fall of Apartheid. On October 2, Judge William Barkley found Martin guilty of trespassing and sentenced him to 30 days in jail, with all of the time suspended on the condition of two years of good behavior. He has also been banned from UVA for life.

Martin says he entered the room because he and the other protesters were unsure whether university officials were providing a safe space for Kessler.

“I just thought it would help clarify the status—does he have a private office or not?” Martin told C-VILLE in May. “And the second thing I thought was, ‘Hold up. They had eight months to protect their students by barring this white supremacist who brought people that maced and beat students and beat one of the librarians into a stroke.’”

A Charlottesville police officer and Stephen Parr, the law school’s chief administrative officer, asked Martin to leave the private librarian’s room. When Martin politely declined, as heard on a police body cam video shown in court, he was arrested for trespassing and removed in handcuffs.

Martin has appealed his conviction, and a trial date will be set in December, according to his attorney, Bruce Williamson.

“You don’t go to courtrooms for any kind of justice,” said Bill Streit, Martin’s friend, supporter, and fellow theologian, outside the courthouse. “If we lived in a just society, there would be no racism. White supremacy would be reconciled by justice.”

Kessler, meanwhile, has been banned from Grounds for four years.

In other white supremacy-related court news, Tyler Davis, the Florida man accused of participating in the August 12, 2017, Market Street Parking Garage beating of DeAndre Harris, pleaded not guilty to malicious wounding in Charlottesville Circuit Court on October 4. He’ll go to trial in February, while two others who participated in the beating have already been found guilty and are serving six and eight year sentences.

And Baltimore-based KKK leader Richard Preston was in the same courtroom that day, to request new counsel for an appeal.

In May, Preston pleaded no contest and was found guilty of firing a gun within 1,000 feet of a school on the day of the Unite the Right rally, when Corey Long famously pointed an improvised flamethrower in the vicinity of the Klansman. Both men claimed to be acting in self-defense, and Preston was sentenced to four years in prison.

In entering the no contest plea, Preston waived all rights to an appeal, says legal expert David Heilberg. However, if Preston wants to object to the advice he received from his lawyer, he has to exhaust the state appeals process first before he can file a habeas petition to complain about the legal representation he got.

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‘Just evil:’ Men sentenced in August 12 parking garage beating

White nationalists chased DeAndre Harris into the Market Street Parking Garage and beat him with pieces of the wooden barricades they tore down. (Credit Image: © Zach D Roberts/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press)

The two young men handed lengthy prison sentences last week for their involvement in the August 12, 2017, brutal parking garage beating of DeAndre Harris sat in stark contrast to one another in Charlottesville Circuit Court.

One’s remorse was hard to miss. Jacob Goodwin, the Arkansas man who can be seen in videos wearing full tactical gear and kicking Harris multiple times as he lay immobile in the Market Street Parking Garage, hung his head for most of his August 23 hearing.

Last summer, a group of white nationalists chased Harris into the parking garage, surrounding him and striking him with their homemade weapons, fists, and feet. They knocked him to the ground at least twice, and continued to beat him as he struggled to get up.

Jacob Goodwin

Goodwin had tears in his eyes as Judge Rick Moore handed down a 10-year sentence with two years suspended. He turned to look at his mother, who had collapsed into his father’s lap, and her muffled sobs could be heard throughout the courtroom.

The jury that found Goodwin guilty of malicious wounding in May recommended the 10-year sentence, but suggested that some time be suspended. Prosecutor Nina-Alice Antony, who asked the judge to suspend no more than two years, said the jury didn’t have the benefit of nearly 20 letters from friends and family that were sent on Goodwin’s behalf.

The contents of the letters were not discussed, but they apparently described a different man than the one seen in the August 12 videotapes—a white man with a shield and goggles, who also wore a pin that said “88,” code for “Heil Hitler,” as he beat a bloodied black man at the largest gathering of white supremacists in recent history.

“[This] is probably him on his worst day,” Antony said. “We are dealing with a snapshot of Mr. Goodwin’s life.”

Judge Moore said he hoped so, and called it one of the most “brutal, one-sided beatings” he’d ever seen. As for the good man Goodwin was shown to be in the letters Moore received, the judge said, “How does somebody who’s this person become the person I saw on the video?”

Before Goodwin was told he’d serve eight years, he told the court he didn’t get the chance to apologize during his trial.

“I’m truly, genuinely sorry,” he said. “I can’t even imagine the aftermath of what happened—how this has affected [Harris’] life.”

Antony said Harris declined to submit a victim impact statement.

“He has been working over the past several months on putting this matter behind him,” she said. Echoed the judge, “Mr. Harris may get over his physical injuries. I don’t know that he’ll ever get over his emotional or psychological injuries.”

Later that day, an apology that came from another man who participated in the beating wasn’t as sincere.

Alex Ramos’ face was blank as Moore grappled with how much prison time to impose.

Alex Ramos, pictured with his right fist raised, and Jacob Goodwin, pictured carrying a shield.

In viral videos, the man who came to the Unite the Right rally from Georgia can be seen wearing a red Make America Great Again hat and a white tank top as he throws one of the last punches in the Market Street Parking Garage melee.

The judge stressed that Ramos didn’t get involved until Harris was already on the ground, and the beating was almost over.

“It’s like he had to interject himself when the person was already beat to pieces,” Moore said. “It’s inhumane.”

Alex Ramos

He decided on a six-year sentence for Ramos, which the jury recommended when they also found him guilty of malicious wounding in May, and said it was easier to decide in this case than in Goodwin’s or that of Richard Preston, the KKK imperial wizard he sentenced two days prior to four years in prison for firing a gun within 1,000 feet of a school on August 12, 2017 (see article on p. 13).

When Ramos took the witness stand, his defense attorney, Jake Joyce, asked him about a couple of Facebook posts he made after the Unite the Right rally, in which Ramos claimed victory, and said of the beating: “We stomped ass. Getting some was fucking fun.”

“I feel pretty embarrassed about it,” Ramos told the judge.

His attorney also noted the “elephant in the room:” Ramos is Hispanic, and not a white nationalist. Ramos described himself as a “conservative” and said he’s always been “somewhat of an outcast” at right-wing events.

The judge said Ramos fought as if he was trying to prove himself or impress somebody.

As for ganging up on Harris in the parking lot, Ramos said, “I made a wrong judgment call…I feel pretty bad. I kinda wish I could apologize to Mr. Harris.”

When advocating for Ramos to serve the full six-year sentence, Antony said he “might still need some time to think.”

Seemingly changing his demeanor just moments before his official sentence was handed down, Ramos said, “I am really sorry.”

“You can spend the rest of your life thinking about that,” the judge said. “It’s just evil.”

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Kessler’s flop: D.C. shows up to show white supremacy out

Jason Kesser, organizer of the Unite the Right rallies in Charlottesville in 2017 and Washington in 2018, carries a U.S. flag during the protest. Roughly two dozen alt-right protesters were far overshadowed by several thousand antifascist and anti-white supremacy counter protesters, including antifa and anarchist groups. Photo Jay Mallin via ZUMA Wire

An estimated 15,000 protesters. Thousands of signs and flags. Hundreds of cops. All of which made their presence known from Freedom Plaza to Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., all day long on Sunday, August 12—to face down barely more than two dozen white nationalists.

Just before noon, leaders of nearly 40 anti-racist groups set their stages at Lafayette Square and Freedom Plaza, unfolding tables with water bottles and nourishment for protesters, laying out thousands of posters and other signs for usage. With the sun high overhead, some demonstrators conserved their energy and took it easy in the park and plaza, sitting in the shade and listening to speakers from Black Lives Matter, Answer Coalition, SURJ, and socialist organizations. They cheered on the voices heard through the megaphones, and hugged each other, sharing smiles and kindness.

A hundred miles away from Charlottesville, Heather Heyer’s face was seen again and again, including on Andy Billotti’s fisherman hat. He was not in Charlottesville last year, “but we were following the news closely…we had a vigil for [Heyer] the very next day,” said Billoti, who cried when he heard the news out of Charlottesville last year. “We are here to protest racism and white supremacy. I handed out several small tokens to remember [Heyer] by,” he said.

“The Nazis thought they could scare us into not coming back. But here we are,” said a Black Lives Matter leader to the crowd of a few hundred early in the day. Moments later, protesters from Freedom Plaza arrived from marching through the streets, joining forces with the Lafayette Square protesters. Suddenly, thousands filled the barricade-lined square, and quickly spilled into the streets. D.C. police blocked the ends of the road with snowplows and other vehicles. Mounted officers approached the park. A few dozen cops lined up along the barricade. The show of force, however, was lacking compared to the police turnout in Charlottesville over the weekend.

Rosalie Ray, who grew up in Charlottesville, came down from New York to participate in the protests on Sunday. “I was watching all of my friends on Twitter last year get beat up—and I couldn’t not be here this year,” said Ray. “This turnout today is incredible…it was so hard seeing the streets where you grew up descend into violence. But you realize Charlottesville has been a place for violence for so many over the years. So there are good things happening now, that Charlottesville can’t hide from anymore.”

The group of two dozen marching for white civil rights, according to Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler, convened at the Vienna Metro station across the river in Virginia before making its way downtown. Their train was secured by policemen, and stations in between Foggy Bottom and Federal Triangle were shut down throughout the afternoon.

Before disembarking, Kessler and his group were told their flag poles violated National Park Service permit rules. A video showed an angry Kessler removing the flags and group members donning them like capes. They arrived more than an hour before their allotted 5pm start time.

Dark clouds swirled overhead, boos drowned out other sounds. “Show the Nazis how we feel about them! Then come back for more presentations,” said one speaker.

Chants, shouts, and cries of “shame!” were heard throughout the afternoon. Protesters carrying Black Lives Matter flags jumped over barricades, into a garden courtyard, and police did not make any moves to stop the trespassing. Moments later, the barricades were thrown down and the area flooded with more protesters.

With thousands of protesters present, there was a tense moment in which they could have interacted with Kessler’s crew and overcome the few dozen policemen, but no drastic moves were made. No chances were taken.

Lightning flashed above the White House, and rain started to fall. Protesters didn’t budge, but continued sharing their message of “love Trumps hate,” and “united against white supremacy.” A few activists from Charlottesville were seen in D.C. after spending all weekend in their own streets.

The hate group left before their rally was even due to start.

As police escorted them away from the square, some members of antifa and other organizations attempted to block them from leaving. Officers quickly moved protesters’ chained shopping carts out of the way, pushed through the crowd, and hustled the Unite the Right2 supporters out of the streets. A small firework, mistaken at first for a flare, was shot off and a smoke bomb was thrown into the mix. There was one reported arrest.

Afterward, an overwhelming sense of victory hung in the air as a mass exodus of protesters made their way to Metro, bus stops, and back home. “15,000 to 30…I like those odds! But we need to keep showing up until it is 15,000 to zero,” said Ray.

Chalk art of hope, love, and humanity colored the sidewalks around the park. People clapped and cheered as they made their way through the city, away from the square. One sign in particular echoed the spirit of Charlottesville last year: “We Replaced You.”

“We thought we already beat [white supremacy],” said Billoti. “But we will beat it again.”

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UPDATED: Anniversary prep: City on lockdown

City police Chief RaShall Brackney promises a robust police presence but people will still be able to exercise their First, Second and Fourth amendment rights. staff photo

During the weekend of August 10-12, the anniversary of last summer’s violent and fatal clashes, the city will be on lockdown—and Governor Ralph Northam has already declared a proactive state of emergency.

At an August 8 press conference attended by more than a dozen law enforcement and public safety officials, city spokesman Brian Wheeler said pedestrian access to the Downtown Mall will be restricted to two points on Water Street: First and Second Street SE.

Inside the mall security area, poles, glass bottles, pepper spray and other items used in last year’s hand-to-hand combat are prohibited—but Virginia state law makes it okay to carry firearms. Chief RaShall Brackney said another constitutional right—the Fourth Amendment—will be in force and visitors to the mall will not be searched before going to buy gelato.

Virginia State Police Colonel Gary Settles said he will have more than 700 officers in town “fully prepared to act” in the event of any violence of violations of the law. And Wheeler puts the total number of cops at over 1,000.

Interim City Manager Mike Murphy had previously announced additional measures that will affect many people in the downtown Charlottesville area during the Unite the Right anniversary weekend, including closing city parks and pools, relocating City Market, and an early closing of City Hall.

The city had already planned to close streets in the immediate downtown area. Now parking will be restricted on additional streets around Friendship Court and the western portion of McIntire Park will be blocked to traffic, and the closures will begin at 6pm Friday, August 10, and have been extended to 6am Monday, August 13.

“We understand that the city and the task fowarce are concerned with safety, however, does closing down the city out of an abundance of caution play right into the hands of the Nazis and this negative anniversary?” asks Janet Dob, a longtime City Market vendor.

She and Cynthia Viejo, the Bageladies, have had a booth at the market for more than a decade, and Dob says downtown businesses are still reeling from last summer. “Revenues were down, not just on that weekend, but longer-term, and a year later when there seems to be little recovery, we’re all hit again.”

“Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” says Viejo, quoting Patrick Swayze. Adds Dob, “That’s exactly what the city is doing—putting all of downtown in a corner and not allowing its goodness to shine.”

Adds Priya Mahadevan, who operates the Desi Dosa stall at City Market, “While I understand that they are trying to keep us safe, closing down businesses means thousands of dollars in losses for all the market vendors. Basically disrupting business is the police’s way of telling us they are incapable of ensuring the safety of people who are trying to do their work and earn a livelihood.”

After the city announced that City Market will be closed Saturday, August 11, vendors who don’t want to lose business have decided to take their booths to Ix Art Park that day. Priya Mahadevan says her Desi Dosa stall will be there. Photo by Martyn Kyle

City Market vendors have agreed to hold the market at Ix Art Park instead.

Rapture owner Mike Rodi says the street closures are “a terrible thing for Downtown Mall businesses.” But he also points out, “If we put an end to this that weekend and on Monday morning have no images to haunt us, if we pause on the anniversary, nothing happens, and there’s no will for a 2019 repeat, that benefits us.”

According to Rodi, “A lot of the business community feels it’s overkill in compensation of last year.”

A year ago, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and counterprotesters clashed in the streets without police intervention. Heather Heyer was killed when a car plowed into a crowd on Fourth Street and two Virginia State Police pilots died in a helicopter crash. VSP have said they’ll be in town in various uniforms all week.

Rodi says he’s “disgusted” by the Virginia General Assembly, which refused to add Charlottesville to a list of cities where open carry of guns is prohibited. “While you can’t bring an aerosol can or pocket knife into a restricted area, you can bring an AR15,” he says.

“I don’t see how [the city] can do anything else,” he says of the restrictions. “If anyone gets hurt, it’s blood on the city’s hands.”

Some of the recently announced closures conflict with events on a city website called #ResilientCville, which also has a calendar. It lists a nonviolent action workshop for August 11 at Carver Recreation Center, which is now closed for the weekend.

Murphy said at the August 6 City Council meeting that the city would not be able to provide security at its parks and pools, and that it would be unable to staff some of its parks because of the number of employees who said they won’t be coming in.

And while Sprint Pavilion general manager Kirby Hutto initially said Fridays After Five would proceed, he announced August 7 that the weekly event is also canceled.

Several downtown businesses have banded together to stay open this weekend, and on Monday, August 13, when some, such as Tastings, are usually closed. A few will offer specials to encourage business—Livery Stable will have a 5-7pm happy hour all weekend, and Iron Paffles & Coffee will sell all paffles for $6. Water Street Parking Garage will also be open. (Scroll to the bottom of the story for more information.

The University of Virginia, which endured the horrifying spectacle of torch-carrying neo-Nazis marching through Grounds last year on August 11, announced plans to restrict access over the weekend to the Lawn (except for residents and attendees of a ticketed event August 11) and to the plaza on the north side of the Rotunda, where a small group of counterprotesters were surrounded by white supremacists at the statue of university founder Thomas Jefferson. Staff erected barricades six feet around the Jefferson statue August 6, but UVA Students United have planned a rally at the Rotunda’s north plaza from 7 to 9pm August 11. The group’s Facebook page says students met with Gloria Graham, vice president of security and safety, who said there will still be access to most of the plaza. University spokesperson Anthony de Bruyn confirms that access limitations only extend to part of the plaza.

The weekend ahead

Though it’s unclear whether there will be any white supremacist demonstrations in town this weekend, here’s what’s on
Charlottesville’s calendar, and a link to all city closures:

Wednesday, August 8

  • Charlottesville Clergy Collective prayer session at Market Street Park. 6 to 6:30am. Noon to 12:30pm.
  • Lawyers’ panel on free speech and anti-racism at Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. 7 to 8:30pm.

Thursday, August 9

  • Charlottesville Clergy Collective prayer session at Market Street Park. 6 to 6:30am. Noon to 12:30pm.
  • Interfaith worship service: Making Our Way Together at The Haven. 7 to 8pm.

Friday, August 10

  • Charlottesville Clergy Collective prayer session at Market Street Park. 6 to 6:30am. Noon to 12:30pm.
  • Shabbat service at Congregation Beth Israel. 6:15pm.

Saturday, August 11

  • The Hope That Summons Us: A Morning of Reflection and Renewal at UVA’s Old Cabell Hall. Ticketed event with clear bag policy. 9am.
  • Congregate Charlottesville: A Service for Repair at First Presbyterian Church. 3pm.
  • VA Students Act Against White Supremacy: Rally for Justice at the Rotunda. 7pm.

Sunday, August 12

  • Community sing-out to celebrate harmony and diversity at Ix Art Park. 4 to 6pm.
  • NAACP’s Time for Reflections and Healing forum at Zion Union Baptist Church. 4 to 6pm.
  • Better Together: Lament, Repent, Rejoice at the Sprint Pavilion. 6 to 8pm.

Open doors

Some businesses that have pledged to stay open this weekend and on Monday, August 13 are: Baggby’s, Brasserie Saison, Champion Brewery, Cinema Taco, Citizen Bowl Shop, Citizen Burger Bar,  Common House, Grit Coffee, Himalayan Fusion, Iron Paffles & Coffee, LWs Livery Stable, Mudhouse, Rapture, Splendora’s Gelato, Tastings of Charlottesville, Tea Bazaar, Ten, The Juice Place, The Nook, The Pie Chest, and The Tin Whistle Irish Pub

Updated 4:40pm August 8 with latest press briefing.

Updated 8:53am August 9 with a link to city closures and a correction on which streets will be blocked.

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Anniversary prep: City on lockdown

The city prepares for the anniversary of last summer's Unite the Right rally. Photo by Eze Amos

During the weekend of August 10-12, the anniversary of last summer’s violent and fatal clashes, the city will be on lockdown—or so it seems.

Interim City Manager Mike Murphy today announced additional measures that will affect many people in the downtown Charlottesville area during the Unite the Right anniversary weekend, including closing city parks and pools, the City Market, and an early closing of City Hall.

The city had already planned to close streets in the immediate downtown area. Now parking is restricted on additional streets around Friendship Court, and the closures will begin at 6pm Friday, August 10, and have been extended to 6am Monday, August 13.

“We understand that the city and the task force are concerned with safety, however, does closing down the city out of an abundance of caution play right into the hands of the Nazis and this negative anniversary?” asks Janet Dob, a City Market regular.

She and Cynthia Viejo, the Bageladies, have held a booth at the market for over a decade, and Dob says downtown businesses are still reeling from last summer. “Revenues were down, not just on that weekend, but longer-term, and a year later when there seems to be little recovery, we’re all hit again.”

“Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” says Viejo, quoting Patrick Swayze. Adds Dob, “That’s exactly what the city is doing—putting all of downtown in a corner and not allowing its goodness to shine.”

Adds Priya Mahadevan, who operates the Desi Dosa stall at City Market, “While I understand that they are trying to keep us safe, closing down businesses means thousands of dollars in losses for all the market vendors. Basically disrupting business is the police’s way of telling us they are incapable of ensuring the safety of people who are trying to do their work and earn a livelihood.”

Rapture owner Mike Rodi says the street closures are “a terrible thing for Downtown Mall businesses.” But he also points out, “If we put an end to this that weekend and on Monday morning have no images to haunt us, if we pause on the anniversary, nothing happens and there’s no will for a 2019 repeat, that benefits us.”

According to Rodi, “A lot of the business community feels it’s overkill in compensation of last year.”

“We’re going to be open because it feels like it’s standing up to the alt-right,” says Joan Fenton, chair of the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville. “Nobody expects to make money. It’s really about making a statement.”

A year ago, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and counterprotesters clashed in the streets without police intervention. Heather Heyer was killed when a car plowed into a crowd on Fourth Street and two Virginia State Police two pilots died in a helicopter crash. VSP have said they’ll be in town in various uniforms all week.

Rodi says he’s “disgusted” by the Virginia General Assembly, which refused to add Charlottesville to a list of cities where open carry of guns is prohibited. “While you can’t bring an aerosol can or pocket knife into a restricted area, you can bring an AR15,” he says.

“I don’t see how [the city] can do anything else,” he says of the restrictions. “If anyone gets hurt, it’s blood on the city’s hands.”

Some of the recently announced closures conflict with events on a city website called #ResilientCville, which also has a calendar. It lists a nonviolent action workshop for August 11 at Carver Recreation Center, which is now closed for the weekend.

And city spokesperson Brian Wheeler did not immediately respond to an inquiry about why the city is closing its pools, spraygrounds and golf course for the August weekend.

Not everything is shutting down. Fridays After Five will proceed—”unless we hear anything from police that we should cancel,” says Sprint Pavilion general manager Kirby Hutto. “We think it’s important to get back to normal.”

And despite the difficulty parking, he says, “We want to give people a reason to come downtown.”

The University of Virginia, which endured the horrifying spectacle of torch-carrying neo-Nazis marching through Grounds last year on August 11, announced plans to restrict access over the weekend to the Lawn (except for residents and attendees of a ticketed event August 11) and to the plaza on the north side of the Rotunda, where a small group of counterprotesters were surrounded by white supremacists at the statue of founder Thomas Jefferson.

UVA Students United plan a rally at the Rotunda’s north plaza from 7 to 9pm August 11. The group’s Facebook page says students met with Gloria Graham, VP of security and safety, who said there will be access to most of the plaza except for barricades six feet around the Jefferson statue. University spokesperson Anthony de Bruyn confirms that access limitations only extend to part of the plaza, and that a UVA representative talked with rally organizers to gauge the appropriate safety and security measures.

Though it’s unclear whether there will be any white supremacist demonstrations in town this weekend, here’s what’s on Charlottesville’s calendar, and a link to all city closures:

Sunday, August 5

  • Cville Fights Back poster launch party at Champion Brewery. 2:30 to 4:30pm.

Monday, August 6

  • Charlottesville Clergy Collective prayer session at Market Street Park. 6 to 6:30am. Noon to 12:30pm.
  • City Council meeting and update on August 11-12 preparations in City Council Chambers. 6:30pm.

Tuesday, August 7:

  • Charlottesville Clergy Collective prayer session at Market Street Park. 6 to 6:30am. Noon to 12:30pm.
  • Why We Protest activist panel at Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. 7 to 8:30pm.
  • Documenting Hate: Charlottesville, a Frontline and ProPublica documentary, debuts at 10pm on local PBS stations and online.

Wednesday, August 8:

  • Charlottesville Clergy Collective prayer session at Market Street Park. 6 to 6:30am. Noon to 12:30pm.
  • Lawyers’ panel on free speech and anti-racism at Jefferson School African American Heritage Center. 7 to 8:30pm.

Thursday, August 9:

  • Charlottesville Clergy Collective prayer session at Market Street Park. 6 to 6:30am. Noon to 12:30pm.
  • Interfaith worship service: Making Our Way Together at The Haven. 7 to 8pm.

Friday, August 10:

  • Charlottesville Clergy Collective prayer session at Market Street Park. 6 to 6:30am. Noon to 12:30pm.
  • Shabbat service at Congregation Beth Israel. 6:15pm.

Saturday, August 11:

  • The Hope That Summons Us: A Morning of Reflection and Renewal at the Old Cabell Hall auditorium at UVA. Ticketed event with clear bag policy. 9am.
  • Congregate Charlottesville: A Service for Repair at First Presbyterian Church. 3pm.
  • VA Students Act Against White Supremacy: Rally for Justice at the Rotunda. 7pm.

Sunday, August 12:

  • Community sing-out to celebration harmony, diversity at Ix Art Park. 4 to 6pm.
  • NAACP’s Time for Reflections and Healing forum at Zion Union Baptist Church. 4 to 6pm.
  • Better Together: Lament, Repent, Rejoice at the Sprint Pavilion. 6 to 8pm.

Corrected August 3 at 9:05am with the correct location of Congregate Charlottesville’s August 11 service.

Updated August 3 at 9:25am with remarks from UVA spokesperson Anthony de Bruyn.

Updated August 3 at 11am with Joan Fenton comment.

 

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And stay out: Cantwell pleads guilty, banned from Virginia for five years

Crying Nazi Chris Cantwell bids an anti-Semitic adieu to Charlottesville. Photo by Eze Amos

Chris Cantwell, aka the Crying Nazi, came to Charlottesville a year ago to chant “Jews will not replace us” while marching through UVA Grounds. As the self-proclaimed racist shock jock was booted from Virginia July 20, he hurled a final invective at local media outside the Albemarle Circuit Court when he refused to comment to “you Jews.”

Cantwell faced two felony charges of pepper-spraying Emily Gorcenski and Kristopher Goad in front of the Rotunda at the base of the Jefferson statue August 11, 2017, where a group of around 40 counterprotesters were surrounded by several hundred tiki-torch carrying white supremacists.

The New Hampshire man was supposed to be in court July 20 for a bond hearing. Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci filed a motion to revoke Cantwell’s bond for violating the terms of his release by identifying the victims in his broadcasts. It would have been the second time he’d been brought in for bond violation. The first was a drunk in public arrest March 31 in Leesburg, where he’s been housed while awaiting trial.

Instead, Cantwell entered a guilty plea for two misdemeanor counts of assault and battery. He was sentenced to two years in prison, with all but the 107 days he’d already spent in jail suspended.

He was given eight hours to get out of town—and the commonwealth—and is banned from the state for five years. He may not carry a weapon here and he’s forbidden to contact Gorcenski and Goad directly or indirectly, including through social media and radio. He was also ordered to pay $250 for doing so while out on bond.

According to Tracci, Gorcenski and Goad supported the plea agreement. Gorcenski is now living overseas, “partly as a result of harassment associated with this case,” he said.

In court, Tracci told the judge that video evidence would have shown Cantwell pepper spraying a man known only as “Beanie Man,” and that the defense would have argued Cantwell sprayed in self-defense. Gorcenski and Goad were gassed in the spray’s drift.

Little known outside the alt-right circles that listened to his “Radical Agenda” radio show, Cantwell gained more widespread notoriety when he came to Charlottesville as a speaker for last year’s Unite the Right rally, and espoused his white supremacist views to Vice reporter Elle Reeve throughout the weekend. His opinions were aired in a segment called “Charlottesville: Race and Terror.”

“We’ll fucking kill these people if we have to,” he said after the rally that left counterprotester  Heather Heyer dead and dozens more injured.

He became known as the Crying Nazi after he posted a teary YouTube video about the warrant for his arrest before turning himself in in Lynchburg.

“This agreement reflects the defendant’s acceptance of criminal responsibility for his dispersal of pepper spray on August 11, 2017,” said Tracci in a statement. The agreement does not preclude additional prosecution for conduct on that date, added the prosecutor.

Cantwell left the courthouse accompanied by mutton-chopped attorney Elmer Woodard, who’s representing several white supremacists charged following last year’s Unite the Right rally.

It was Daily Progress reporter Lauren Berg’s last day, and she filmed Cantwell’s response to a request for comment. As Woodard tipped his boater hat to the press, Cantwell answered, “You can contact me through my website instead of this gotcha garbage, you Jews.”