White Supremacist Rally and Parade Turns Violent in Charlottesville, Virginia, One Person Dead and 19 Injured as Car Plows Into Crowd of Anti-Protesters
By: Miguel Munoz, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2017
A White Supremacist Rally and Parade in Charlottesville, Virginia turned violent on Saturday, August 12, 2017, as an unidentified car driver plowed into a crowd of Anti-Protesters, killing one person and injuring 19 other persons who have had to be hospitalized. The death and injured persons toll may possibly still rise.
Originally organized to protest the City of Charlottesville, Virginia election approving the removal of a Confederate Statute of General Robert E. Lee at a public park and to “Unite the Right,” the White Supremacist Rally and Parade organized by Right-wing blogger Jason Kesseler with participants from the Ku Klux Klan, Nazi Sympathizers, Alt-Right Armed Militias, and White Nationalist groups turned deadly when a gray Dodge Charger drove directly into a crowd of Anti-Protesters marching in protest of the White Supremacist Rally and Parade.
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency and called the State Police and National Guard to intervene and restore law and order as groups of White Supremacists and Anti-Protesters clashed in skirmishes and fights with each other, including spraying of pepper spray into Anti-Protesters eyes and the use of batons, sticks, and shields among combatants.
Charlottesville, Virginia Mayor Michael Signer blamed President Trump for the increased rise of racism since his 2016 Presidential Campaign. Mayor Signer stated “I’m not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you’re seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the Whie House and the people around the President.”
President Trump was slow in issuing an official statement concerning the violence happening in Charlottesville, Viriginia. He finally appeared in a live press conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey Golf Club stating that he “condemned the violence” and urged all groups to love one another as all are Americans, requesting to respect each other and to restore law and order. Even First Lady Melania Trump responded to the Charlottesville violence before her husband, President Trump, did.
Virginia Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran announced the driver of the gray Dodge Charger that plowed into the crowd of Anti-Protesters has been arrested, a white male person, and the Dodge Charger has been impounded.
An Eyewitness to the Dodge Charger plowing into the crowd of Anti-Protesters, Brennan Gilmore, called the incident an act of domestic terrorism against a group of innocent citizens excercising their constitutional right of freedom of speech by protesting against racism.
