Va. town braces for white nationalist rally, counterprotests
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A month after a Ku Klux Klan rally here ended with police using tear gas on protesters, Charlottesville is bracing for a weekend of white nationalist demonstrations and counterprotests, and suddenly this tranquil college town feels like a city under siege.
Thousands of people — many from out of town — are expected to descend on the city to either protest or participate in a “Unite the Right” rally Saturday convened by white nationalists who oppose a plan to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, from a city park.
“People are angry, they’re scared, they’re hurt, they’re confused,” said the Rev. Seth Wispelwey of the local United Church of Christ. “White supremacists rallying in our town is an act of violence.”
City officials and police are preparing for the possibility of unrest; the Virginia National Guard put out a statement saying it would “closely monitor the situation.” Mayor Mike Signer said Friday that he had been consulting with fellow mayors, seeking advice on how to “be prepared to make sure people can assemble and express themselves freely.”
Religious leaders who are planning counterdemonstrations have been training in nonviolent protest.
The University of Virginia Medical Center has canceled all elective surgery — standard procedure in preparation for events that could lead to mass casualties. Around town, some businesses plan to close.
“This whole thing feels like the prep to a Wild West shootout where the businesses shutter and the women shoo their children upstairs,” said Phillip Fassieux, 36.
The debate over the statue began about a year and a half ago, when an African-American high school student here started a petition to have it removed. Wes Bellamy, the city’s vice mayor and the only black member of the City Council, took up the cause, and the Council set up a commission. After public hearings, it recommended that the statue either be relocated to another park, or that the city add historical context so that the monument. Instead, City Council members voted 3-2 in April to sell the statue. The next month, a judge issued an injunction, keeping the statue in place for six months.
“Charlottesville kind of made itself a target by deciding they wanted to remove this statue, and by stringing the whole thing out,” said Douglas Laycock, a University of Virginia law professor who is planning to give a talk on free speech Saturday.