Trump slammed after fascist rally
Car ploughs into crowd during white supremacist violence
CHAOS and violence turned to tragedy on Saturday as hundreds of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members, planning to stage what they described as their largest rally in decades to “take America back”, clashed with counter protesters in the streets and a car ploughed into crowds, killing one and injuring 17 others.
In addition, two police officers died when a helicopter called to the scene crashed.
Governor Terry McAuliffe, who had declared a state of emergency in the morning, said at an evening news conference that he had a message for “all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville: Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth.”
Maurice Jones, Charlottesville’s African-American city manager, looked stricken as he said: “Hate came to our town today in a way that we had feared but we had never really let ourselves imagine would.”
In an emergency meeting on Saturday evening, the Charlottesville City Council voted to give police the power to enact a curfew or otherwise restrict assembly as necessary to protect public safety.
Video recorded at the scene of the car crash shows a 2010 grey Dodge Challenger accelerating into crowds on a pedestrian mall, sending bodies flying – and then reversing quickly, hitting more people.
Witnesses said the street was filled with people opposed to the white nationalists who had come to town bearing Confederate flags and anti-Semitic epithets.
A 32-year-old woman was killed, according to police, who said they were investigating the incident as a criminal homicide.
Elected leaders in Virginia and elsewhere urged peace, blasting the white supremacist views on display in Charlottesville as ugly. US House Speaker Paul Ryan, called the display “repugnant”.
But US President Donald Trump, known for his rapid-fire tweets, remained silent throughout the morning. In the afternoon, he said, without specifically mentioning white nationalists or their views: “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.”
Many Democrats criticised Trump. “The president’s talk of violence ‘on many sides’ ignores the shameful reality of white supremacism in our country today and continues a disturbing pattern of complacency around such acts of hate,” said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.
Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke replied: “Take a good look in the mirror and remember it was white Americans who put you in the presidency.” – Washington Post