White supremacists rally in Virginia
AT least one person was killed on Saturday and 35 injured as protests turned violent in Charlottesville, Virginia, as white supremacists clashed with counterdemonstrators and a car ploughed into a crowd of antiracist and anti-fascist demonstrators.
A 32-year-old female was among those killed in the car ramming, said Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas, and injuries ranged from life-threatening to minor.
She was later named on social media as Heather Heyer and a fund raising page for her family has raised nearly $20 000, at the time of publication.
A 20-year-old man was held by police on charges relating to the car incident, including second-degree murder, according to police. The FBI opened a civil rights probe.
The Charlottesville Police Department said in a statement on Saturday night that James Alex Fields Jr of Ohio also faces three counts of malicious wounding, and one count related to leaving the scene
The Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously on Saturday to allow the police chief to declare a curfew. No action on the move has been taken yet, Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer said on his Facebook page.
Earlier on Saturday Signer confirmed on Twitter that at least one person had died in the car ramming incident. The hospital in Charlottesville reported that at least 19 people were injured.
Pepper spray, batons and makeshift weapons were used as far-right demonstrators clashed with counterprotesters throughout Saturday.
Organised by Jason Kessler, a former journalist and a member of the Proud Boys, an ultra-nationalist group, the “Unite the Right” rally was planned to voice opposition to the removal of a Confederate statue and has been described as one of the largest white supremacist events in recent US history.
Writing on Twitter on Saturday morning, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe announced a state of emergency to “aid response to violence at the alt-right rally in Charlottesville”.
It is the third event of its type to be held in Charlottesville, a university town of 46 000 people, throughout the last four months.
Earlier this year, the city voted to remove a statue of Robert E Lee, the foremost Confederate military leader during the US Civil War, prompting similar far-right protests in May and July.
Among those in attendance are well-known figures such as Mike Peinovich, a white supremacist podcaster who also goes by Mike Enoch, and Richard Spencer, a leading figure in the alt-right, a loosely knit group that includes white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
The groups who sent members included the National Socialist Movement, the Traditionalist Worker Party, the neo-Confederate League of the South and Identity Evropa, among other white supremacist and far-right movements.
On Saturday, US President Donald Trump condemned the clashes in Charlottesville in a Twitter post. “There is no place for this kind of violence in America,” he wrote.
Far-right groups supported Trump’s campaign and celebrated his electoral victory last November, seeing common cause in his efforts to limit immigration and repeal affirmative action, among other policies. — Al Jazeera.