Leader backs violent bigots
Robert Armengol said: “It was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. After that it was pandemonium.”
The victim’s mum said: “She died doing what was right. My heart is broken but I am forever proud of her.”
Before the protest, Heather spoke of her anger about the Unite the Right rally. She posted on Facebook: “If you are not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”
James Alex Fields Jr, 20, of Maumee, Ohio, was arrested and charged with murder.
US attorney general Jeff Sessions said of the racial hatred: “The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice.
“When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.”
The Charlottesville riots were the latest in a series of tense dramas unfolding across the US over plans to remove statues and other historical markers of the Confederacy.
It began with a torch-lit rally on Friday by white nationalists at the University of Virginia. The groups returned the next day.
They were well prepared for violence – wearing bicycle and motorcycle helmets and carrying clubs, sticks and makeshift shields. The gangs were met by anti-fascist demonstrators in Emancipation Park, formerly Lee Park where the general’s statue stands.
Violence quickly flared and the sides clashed using batons, bricks, pepper spray and fists.
The police cleared the area before noon and Governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency, calling in the National Guard.
But some protesters accused officers of doing nothing to quell the trouble.
One said: “The worst part is that people got hurt and the police stood by and didn’t do a damn thing.”
White nationalist Richard Spencer was due to give a talk at the rally but had to withdraw.
But he arrogantly told protesters: “You think that we’re going to back down to this kind of behaviour to you and your little provincial town? No.”
Police said three men had been arrested over the clashes and charged with offences including carrying a concealed gun. Writer and broadcaster NAZIS and white supremacists marched in Charlottesville and Donald Trump stood by.
He threw one of the loveliest university cities in the world under the bus in his zeal to appease his base.
Of course, not all of his base are Nazis, racists and anti-Semites but better safe than sorry for Trump.
By his use of the term “all sides” to describe the Unite the Right rampage, he gave a licence to hatred.
The South is complicated and complex.
Home of the philosophy of “States Rights”, the region is grounded in the belief the states of America are sovereign above all.
The federal government is a tool to enact their will. This clash exploded into the Civil War.
At its heart was the question of slavery.
The South banded into a confederacy, seceded and went to war, much of which was fought on Southern soil.
What many in the South call the “Occupation” happened there too.
It is African-Americans who have always been the battle site of this states rights vs federal government battle.
The Civil War ended. But there is little peace.
Today, much of the Republican Party in the South occupies the ground left by the Democrats after the Civil Rights era.
The Republicans are trying to erase voter rights gains, challenging the concept of equality itself.
The continued celebration of the Confederate flag, the statue of General Robert E Lee, are attempts for many white Southern Americans and their allies in other parts of the US to “Make America Great Again”.
The white supremacists and Nazis in Charlottesville are a reminder of a time most have decided the nation will not return to.
The president has aligned himself with the forces of those who want to roll back history. He is unfit to hold his high office.