Town Board blames Trump for rise in hatred
Members stood behind the people of Charlottesville and accused President Trump of leading a surge of hate crimes.
Town Board members on Tuesday stood firmly behind the people of Charlottesville who were victims of white supremacist, Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi anger and directly accused President Donald Trump of leading a surge of hate crimes.
At a meeting Tuesday evening, town officials were united in expressing disdain for Trump.
Councilman Jay Wenk said the white supremacist uprising is led by “that despicable turd in the White House” and that history should provide a warning to Americans.
“The sad and horrible thing is this is not new,” said Wenk, who said that, at 90 years old, he has had a wide range of historical experience.
“I can tell you that the 1930s were no bargain,” he said. “The German-American Bund (American Nazi Party) had camps and meeting places all over this country. They packed on more than one occasion ... the old Madison Square Garden (with people) listening to hate speech and anti-black and anti-Semitic, too. I see this as a somewhat different version of what has gone on before.”
The clash Saturday in Charlottesville included a person driving a car into a crowd of people who had been counter protesting the “Unite the Right” event. Nineteen 19 people were injured by the car and Heather Heyer, 32, a paralegal in a city law firm, was killed.
Councilman Richard
Heppner, who is also town historian, reminded the board to be vigilant and not to have its own historical events repeated.
“We have had a cross burned in Woodstock,” he said. “We have had (the Communist symbol) hammers and sickles burned in Woodstock. It just requires vigilance to make sure that it doesn’t happen again because it can happen here.”
Supervisor Bill McKenna said a community vigil in support of Charlottesville’s victims on Monday showed there is the will to fight back against hate groups.
“I’m ever-optimistic the country will tilt back to the proper direction,” he said. “It’s going to take all of us, it’s going to take an effort, but, I think, ... we all need to remember in a little over a year there’s going to be another election and we all have to do our part.”
Town Clerk Jackie Early said the behavior of the hate groups was appalling and cannot be tolerated by any elected official.
“Hatred knows no political party, race or color or country,” she said. “What it is, hatred, ... I think we can start a healing pattern by not blaming any one particular party, color or country. I think what we need to do is really put our efforts toward these hate groups that go out and purposely do what they want to do bring attention to themselves and whether it’s killing, maiming, and injuring innocent people it’s disgusting.”