White nationalists far outnumbered
Thousands show up to oppose group that wanted to recall Charlottesville march
WASHINGTON >> A short and sparsely attended white nationalist rally broke up late Sunday as police ushered the attendees into white vans and drove them away from a crowd of thousands of angry protesters in downtown Washington, D.C.
The rally’s end followed a day in which large numbers of police sought — for the most part successfully — to keep the two sides from clashing in a repeat of last year’s deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The attendees of the “Unite the Right 2” rally, who numbered about two dozen, were being transported to a train station to catch a train to Vienna, Virginia, where they would retrieve their cars, a Fairfax County official said.
The rally’s message of “white civil rights,” delivered in an overwhelmingly liberal city where African-Americans outnumbered
whites at the last Census count, was angrily denounced by the counterprotesters who flocked to Lafayette Square.
A brief speech by rally organizer Jason Kessler. who was one of the lead organizers of last year’s rally, was drowned out by the cries and chants of those massed around him.
Many in the crowd of counterprotesters wore the black masks, helmets and body armor of the Antifa movement, which clashed with white supremacists in Charlottesville.
Scores of police officers kept them separated from the white nationalist demonstrators — and ultimately drew the renewed anger of the masked counterprotesters after supporters of the white supremacist rally were long gone.
As evening came and rain began to fall, the blackclad group launched flares and fireworks toward the White House compound. About 200 of them then moved east in a group down a street, turning over trash bins and chanting anti-police slogans.
Police later clashed with the counterprotesters after the activists tried to push past a line of officers on motorcycles engaged in crowd control. Some officers scuffled with the activists and used mace in response, though police said no one was immediately arrested.
Counterprotester Mike Isaacson said the activists had planned to march to the headquarters of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) but were thwarted by police and rerouted to the Department of Justice. He said they had not planned to have a confrontation with police.
“We were just taking the streets,” he said.
The white supremacist gathering fell on the anniversary of the Charlottesville violence, which killed an anti-racism protester, Heather Heyer, and took the lives of two Virginia state troopers whose helicopter crashed as they returned Police form a protective phalanx around participants in the white supremacist Unite the Right rally as they march.
from monitoring the events.
Both Kessler and opposition groups obtained permits from the National Park Service to demonstrate at the park, a leafy, 7-acre enclave across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. Authorities confined the groups to opposite sides of the park and separated them by a barrier.
From the moment they set foot in the District, Kessler and his supporters were escorted by police in riot gear. They arrived in the city after boarding a train — with police officers stationed in each car — at the Vienna Metro station in Northern Virginia.
Before boarding the train, Kessler told reporters they were promoting
free speech and abuses of “white people’s civil rights.”
“I am not a white nationalist. I’m a civil rights advocate,” he said. “I’m focusing on white people because we don’t have civil rights advocates.”
Kessler offered his “condolences” to Heyer’s mother but said police in Charlottesville should have blocked off the street where she was killed last year.
The train carrying Kessler made stops along the way from Vienna toward Foggy Bottom. At Clarendon station, officers on the platform warned waiting passengers that the coming train was carrying Unite the Right participants and directed people to board at the front of the train, away from
Kessler’s car at the back.
Protesters awaited the train when it arrived at Foggy Bottom station, but they were separated from Kessler by about 60 feet, with officers instructing the protesters that they weren’t allowed to get any closer. None of the protesters physically tried to get past the police.
When Kessler emerged from the car, surrounded by photographers and TV cameras, the protesters started booing and chanting “Black Lives Matter.” Once the white supremacist group went up the escalator and past the fare gates, the people on the platform could hear a slow rumble of screams and yells erupt from people waiting at the surface.
Members of Kessler’s group said that they weren’t sure how many people would show up to demonstrate with them.
As the group was escorted into the station, a crowd of counterprotesters shouted “go home Nazis” and told the group, whose faces were covered, to “take off your masks.”
Meanwhile, downtown, the number of protesters grew.
A 2:30 p.m., several dozen masked counterprotesters, many of them wearing
helmets and body armor, moved north. Many carried black umbrellas that they extended to form a shield when journalists approached them to ask questions and take photographs.
“We’re not talking to press today,” said one man with a black scarf tied across the bottom half of his face. “We prefer to let our actions speak for themselves.”
As the group approached intersections, those at the front and rear would call out commands for others to halt. Eventually they stopped in Franklin Square Park, sitting down to rest and drink water.
One demonstrator, who wore dark sunglasses and had a bandanna across his face, declined to give his name but said he works fulltime in the health care industry and has children.
“People like to think that we’re a bunch of jobless hippies,” he said.
He said he drew his inspiration for involvement in the black bloc protest in part from his study of German history, saying the passivity of Germans had enabled Adolf Hitler’s rise.
“The nice, chatty liberals in Germany didn’t stop anything from happening,” he said.
He said the group of black bloc demonstrators would use violence only if forced to by white nationalist protesters.
Asked why he and his co-demonstrators were prepared to use violence rather than taking a nonviolent approach, he said others were free to adopt more peaceful measures.
“There’s enough of us for everybody to do, in their heart of hearts, what they feel is the absolute best thing,” he said.
However, he added, “I think if you ask the average person on the street, more people are willing to use a fist if a fist comes at them than you think.”
By midafternoon, close to 1,000 protesters were at Freedom Plaza, a few blocks from Lafayette Park, for speeches and music.
The Rev. Graylan Hagler was the rally’s first speaker.
“This place, this city, this country is a country of inclusivity and not white supremacy,” he said in a booming voice. “We are people that stand up for racial justice and racial inclusivity. We will not be silenced.”
For some of the protesters, the focus was less on the white supremacist rally than on President Trump.
Holding a “Dump Trump” sign, Mike Holey, 67, of Baltimore said he’s been particularly frustrated by what he called Trump’s hesitation to denounce white supremacy and neo-Nazism. He pointed to Trump’s statement that there was “blame on both sides” after violence broke out at the Unite the Right rally last year.
Benjamin Garrett, a Vietnam War veteran who lives in Maryland, raised a sign saying “Trump is a traitor” in block capital letters.
“He gives these people permission,” Garrett said. “Trump is a blatant racist.”
Trump, who was heavily criticized last year for not unequivocally condemning the white nationalists last year, addressed the Charlottesville anniversary Saturday, tweeting, “The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!”