Hate group’s torches shine in Va. — again

DOZENS OF torch-wielding white nationalists flocked to a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Va., for the first time since a neo-Nazi’s deadly attack on protesters less than two months ago.

The group, led by far-right activist Richard Spencer, sported white-collared shirts while they briefly surrounded a statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee in Emancipation Park, near the University of Virginia campus Saturday night.

Spencer’s latest protest in the former Lee Park was his followers’ smallest yet. The display lasted less than a half hour and ended shortly after they made a statement, according to WVIR-TV.

“We are here to represent white America’s interests,” one member of the group shouted over a loudspeaker.

The anonymous speaker jeered what he described as antiwhite policies, rhetoric and rightwing pols for not standing by their cause.

“The right wing establishment refuses to stick up for their own people, their own voters,” he shouted, according to a video of the protest.

He denounced Charlottesville’s plans to remove the Confederate statue, a decision prompted by a similar torchlit march through the UVA campus in August.

The next day, a neo-Nazi plowed a sports car through throngs of peaceful protesters, killing paralegal Heather Heyer.

This is the third visit followers of UVA alum Spencer have made in the college town since May — when a group of chanting men with torches shouted, “Russia is our friend.”

“We’re going to do it again,” Spencer said in a Twitter video after Saturday’s rally. “We came, we triggered, we left. We did an inand-out flash mob,” he added.

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer suggested he would take legal action to prevent another hate-spouting rally at the park.

“Another despicable visit by neo-Nazi cowards,” the mayor tweeted. “You’re not welcome here! Go home! Meantime we’re looking at all our legal options. Stay tuned.”

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said, “we continue to oppose these racists and their message of hate.”

Ralph Northam, the state’s lieutenant governor and Democratic candidate to replace McAuliffe, challenged his Trump-endorsed opponent, Ed Gillespie, to put a stop to Spencer’s antics “the next time you talk to Trump.”

“Tell him we’re sick of this here in Virginia,” Northam tweeted. He also blamed President Trump for allowing racism to flourish.