UVa. bars rightists over rally

It’s the “right” thing to do.

The University of Virginia handed alumnus Richard Spencer and nine others a fouryear ban from school grounds for their involvement in a white supremacist demonstration on campus last summer.

Spencer, on Aug. 11 2017, led more than 150 marchers, some of them wielding tiki torches, on a procession through the Charlottesville campus as they chanted Nazi slogans, including “You will not replace us” and “Blood and soil.” Tensions escalated, with demonstrators circling and taunting a smaller group of students gathered to protest their anti-Semitic message.

The following day, Spencer was among thousands of other white nationalists and neoNazis for the deadly “Unite the Right” rally — an event aimed at protesting local officials’ decision to remove a Confederate war memorial from a public park. Heather Heyer, a 32-yearold paralegal, joined scores of others downtown to call for peace and protest the racist groups marching through the city. She was killed when James Fields, a man with ties to neo-Nazi groups, drove his Dodge Challenger into the crowd of counter protesters.

“The trespass warnings issued today reflect our commitment to ensuring the safety of our community while upholding the principles of freedom of speech and assembly,” university President Jim Ryan said in a statement.

Assistant Vice President and Chief of Police Tommye Sutton said a yearlong investigation into the incident revealed all 10 people facing the four-year ban attempted “to carry out acts of violence or other conduct that directly threatened the health and safety” of everyone on campus.