At least one dead as US white nationalists ignite Virginia clashes
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (Reuters) - At least one person died and 30 were injured in a day of violent clashes between white nationalists and counter-protesters in Virginia yesterday, with the state’s governor blaming the neoNazis for sparking the violence and demanding that they go home.
Two people also died when a Virginia State Police helicopter crashed near the violence in Charlottesville, federal aviation officials said.
It was not clear if the crash was related to the outbreak of clashes in the Southern college town, where protesters fought hundreds of white supremacists trying to halt the planned removal of a Confederate statue from a park. Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, declared an emergency and halted a white nationalist rally, while President Donald Trump condemned the violence.
“I have a message to all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today. Our message is plain and simple: go home,” Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe told a news conference.
“You are not wanted in this great commonwealth. Shame on you,” he said.
The clashes highlight how the white supremacist movement has resurfaced under the “alt-right” banner after years in the shadows of mainstream American politics.
“We’re closely following the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia,” Trump told reporters at his New Jersey golf course.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”
A reporter shouted a question to Trump about whether he had spoken out strongly enough against white nationalists but the president made no comment.
A 32-year-old woman died when a car slammed into a crowd in Charlottesville, home to the University of Virginia, police said. Five people suffered critical injuries and four had serious injuries from the car strike, the University of Virginia Health System said.
Video on social media and Reuters photographs showed a car slamming into a large group of what appeared to be counterprotesters, sending some flying into the air.
The driver of the car, an unidentified man, has been taken into custody and the incident is being treated as a homicide, Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas told a news conference.
The incident occurred after earlier clashes nearby.
Prominent Democrats, civil rights activists and even a few Republicans said it was inexcusable of the president not to denounce white supremacy.
“Mr President - we must call evil by its name,” Republican US Senator Cory Gardner, wrote on Twitter.
“These were white supremacists and this was domestic,” said Gardner, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the group charged with helping to get Republicans elected to the Senate.
Former US Secretary of State John Kerry, who served under Democratic former President Barack Obama, said in a tweet: Reuters/Joshua Roberts
“What we’ve seen today in Charlottesville needs to be condemned and called what it is: hatred, evil, racism & homegrown extremism,”
The Charlottesville confrontation was a stark reminder of the growing political polarization that has intensified since Trump’s election last year.
“You will not erase us,” chanted a crowd of white nationalists, while counter-protesters carried placards that read: “Nazi go home” and “Smash white supremacy.”