Violence at Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia

[angelburst29]

Jason Kessler, the chief organizer of the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 11, has been released on bond after being indicted on a felony perjury charge earlier this week.

Charlottesville Protest Organizer Released on Bond After Perjury Indictment
https://sputniknews.com/us/201710051057958719-kessler-charlottesville-released-perjury/

An Albemarle County circuit court clerk confirmed that Kessler, 34, was released Tuesday just one hour after being booked into jail.

According to court records, the perjury charge stems from a sworn statement the white nationalist activist made before a county magistrate on January 23 alleging that a Charlottesville resident, James Taylor, punched him in the face at the city's Downtown Mall. The incident occurred as Kessler was trying to gather signatures for his petition to get the city's vice mayor removed from office.

"He and his buddy came over, they scribbled on my petition and vandalized it," he said at the time. "James didn't want to have a conversation with me, he yelled you're a… and he called me a name. I felt threatened and I hit him to get him away from me."

Taylor, in turn, accused Kessler of assaulting him.

"He handed me his clipboard so I could read it and I handed it back to him," he said. "I said what I said to him and he didn't like it."

After prosecutors found video evidence disproving Kessler's claim, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 50 hours of community service. Charges against Taylor were dismissed.

Kessler admitted to punching Taylor in the face after the two exchanged curse words.

"I'll admit that what I did was not legal," he told reporters. "I was having a bad day. I've never done anything like this before and it will never happen again."

If convicted of the felony charge, Kessler faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $2,500 fine.

​Kessler, who has affiliations with various white nationalist groups, planned the August 11 and 12 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville to protest the City Council's plan to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee and rename a local park "Emancipation Park." One woman was killed and more than a dozen injured when a car allegedly driven by one of the rally's participants plowed at high speed into a group of counter-protesters on a city street.

Trump has finally changed his unapologetic stance on events in Charlottesville, Virginia and signed a Senate resolution condemning violence as an act of terrorism.

Trump Signs Resolution Condemning Charlottesville Violence as Terror Attack 15.09.2017
https://sputniknews.com/us/201709151057409578-trump-charlottesville-resolution-terrorist-act/

US President Donald Trump signed a resolution that condemns last month’s violence in Charlottesville Virginia as domestic terrorism, the White House said in a press release.

"On Thursday, September 14, 2017, the President signed into law… S.J.Res. 49, which condemns the violence and domestic terrorist attack that took place during events between August 11 and August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia," the release said on Thursday.

The resolution recognizes the first responders who lost their lives, offers deepest condolences to the families and friends of those individuals who were killed, the release said.

The law also rejects "White nationalists, White supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and other hate groups, and [urges] the President and the President’s Cabinet to use all available resources to address the threats posed by those groups," according to the release.

 

[angelburst29]

A few dozen white nationalists staged a brief rally on Saturday in Charlottesville, Virginia, where violent clashes took places in August. The city’s mayor called the protest "despicable."

Charlottesville Revisited: White Nationalists Hold New Torch-Lit Protest
https://sputniknews.com/us/201710081058052418-charlottesville-nationalist-rally/

Some 40 to 50 people gathered at Emancipation Park where the statute of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee stands, according to Charlottesville police. They were led by so-called alt-right activist Richard Spencer and were carrying lit torches.

Spencer published pictures and a video of the rally, showing protesters chanting "You will not replace us" and "We will be back."

​The rally took about 10 minutes. After the rally, the group left the park, boarded a bus and left the city, according to police.

​​The rally sparked an angry response from local authorities. Charlottesville mayor Mike Signer took to Twitter, calling the protest a "despicable visit by neo-Nazi cowards."

"We are monitoring this situation as we continue to oppose these racists and their message of hate," Governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe wrote on Twitter.

 

[angelburst29]

Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency in advance of a speech white nationalist Richard Spencer is scheduled to give at the University of Florida.

Florida State of Emergency Declared for White Nationalist Speech at UF
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960725000230

Scott warned in an executive order Monday that a "threat of a potential emergency is imminent" in Alachua County, in North Florida. Spencer is slated to speak at the campus on Thursday, First Coast News reported.

Spencer participated in a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that led to deadly violence in August.

Scott's executive order will allow local law-enforcement authorities to partner with state and other law-enforcement agencies to provide security for the event. The university has already said it expects to spend $500,000 on security.

The governor is also activating the Florida National Guard to help with security if it is needed. In statements published by UF, the state of emergency was requested by the Alachua sheriff and was not made in response to a "heightened security threat."

State of Emergency laws in Florida allow this type of order to be issued for potential civil disasters that are beyond a local government's control.

Scott's order said state surplus and unappropriated funds will be available to Alachua County to protect "public safety... and public and private property."

In August, UF attempted to cancel Spencer's speech for promoting hate and inciting violence based on brutal protests in Charlottesville and other campuses. After Spencer threatened a lawsuit for the cancellation, UF released a statement that as a public university it could not violate the First Amendment based on the speech's controversial content.

Attorney Rod Sullivan explained speech on general topics cannot be prohibited by the government unless it orders immediate violence.

"As a speaker, you're not responsible for the violence of counter-protestors you're not even responsible for the violence created by your own protesters," Sullivan said. "When you speak in theoretical terms or policy terms, those do not imminently incite people to violence, therefore it's still protected by the First Amendment."

Sullivan said while restrictions can be placed on the time, location and platform for the speech, the content may not be limited.

"The very touchstone of the First Amendment is not only that it protects the speech that we like, but also the speech we hate," said Sullivan. "That's the basic principle behind the First Amendment."

Counter protests on the UF president's office occurred Monday led by student-based group No Nazi UF. The group has pledged to march on Thursday in opposition to Spencer's arrival.

Florida state of emergency declared for white nationalist speech at UF (Video)
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/florida-state-of-emergency-declared-for-white-nationalist-speech-at-uf/483753406

 

[angelburst29]

White nationalist leader Richard Spencer gave Israel as an example of an “ethno-state” he aspires to create in the United States during a controversial speech at the University of Florida on Thursday. Hundreds protested Spencer’s presence outside the auditorium.

White Nationalist Richard Spencer Gives Israel as Example of Ethno-state He Wants in U.S.
_ https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.818233

“The Jewish state of Israel is not just another country in the Middle East. It is a country for Jews around the world,” he said. The audience booed at the mention of Israel.

Spencer also mentioned Poland, Russia and Hungary as “European states that want to uphold their identities,” saying that he doesn’t “want the world to be an undifferentiated mass of individuals going shopping in a global economy.”

He said that, “like Jews in the 19th century had an ideal of Zionism,” he and his compatriots have a dream of a white American “ethno-state.”

Hundreds of people protested Spencer’s presence outside the building with signs and anti-Nazi chants. Police officers stood outside the UF Phillips Center for the Performing Arts to prevent violence, while protesters shouted, “Not in our town! Not in our state! We don’t want your Nazi hate!”

Spencer resorted to baiting the audience in the half-empty auditorium as they chanted loudly, “go home Spencer, go home!” and the speech quickly descended into a shouting match as Spencer and his audience traded insults.

To the boos and chants and jeers, he yelled defiantly “I’m not going home!” He bemoaned the oppression he said he experienced in Charlottesville, where he said “free speech was stifled.”

“You can’t shut any of us up. No one can hear you. The whole world is watching this. They don’t hear anything you are saying. All they hear is a bunch of shrieking and grunting morons. That’s not an argument,” Spencer shouted.

“Within all of you is a hidden doubt about the system you are experiencing, about a system that isn’t just anti-white, a system that is against all identities,” he said.

As the crowd chanted “Black Lives Matter!” he chuckled, “consider the absurdity of yelling this at me.”

“You aren’t speaking. You are trying to create a mob that will shut down free speech are you adults, are you ready to speak for yourself. You all look like pre-schoolers who aren’t ready for ideas that might get a little challenging,” Spencer said.

The school estimates it is spending $600,000 on security to ensure no repeat of violent clashes connected to a white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one dead in August.

UF cited the Charlottesville violence in rejecting an initial request from Spencer to speak at the university, but later relented on free speech grounds. Florida’s governor declared a state of emergency for the event.

Andrew Anglin, the American blogger who runs the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer website, has called on followers who are unable to attend Spencer’s speech in Florida to target Jewish and African-American institutions, the Anti-Defamation League said.

According to the ADL, Anglin provided his white supremacist supporters with the addresses of the Chabad Jewish Center, the Institute of Black Culture and other locations in Florida and suggested they hold “flash demos” there, similar to the brief rally Spencer led in Charlottesville earlier this month.

Chabad director Rabbi Berl Goldman said that dozens of Jewish students, parents and staff members had contacted him with worries regarding the event.

 

[angelburst29]

Apparently, "ANTIFA’s day of rage across the United States" is scheduled for Nov. 4th, headlined as "The Trump/Pence Regime Must GO!"
_https://refusefascism.org/

I came across another report that the US Department of Defense (DOD) will be holding a training exercise starting on Nov. 4-6th.

DOD Exercise To Simulate Nationwide Power Grid Blackout From Solar Storm During ANTIFA Protests In November 26 October, 2017
http://stockboardasset.com/insights-and-research/dod-exercise-to-simulate-nationwide-power-grid-blackout-from-solar-storm-during-antifa-protests-in-november/

According to The National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL), elements of the US Department of Defense (DOD) will simulate a “communications interoperability” training exercise across the United States on November 04-06. The announcement released on October 24 has not been widely distributed to the media, because the drill is simulating a total grid collapse and could spark public fear.

Explained by Army MARS Program Manager Paul English, “This exercise
will begin with a national massive coronal mass ejection eventwhich will impact the national power grid as well as all forms of traditional communication, including landline telephone, cellphone, satellite, and Internet connectivity,”

In July, we warned about the US government quietly preparing for a massive coronal mass ejection with the passage of an Executive Order— “Coordinating Efforts to Prepare the Nation for Space Weather Events”.

Here is snippet of section 1 of the executive order:

Space weather events, in the form of solar flares, solar energetic particles, and geomagnetic disturbances, occur regularly, some with measurable effects on critical infrastructure systems and technologies, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), satellite operations and communication, aviation, and the electrical power grid. Extreme space weather events — those that could significantly degrade critical infrastructure — could disable large portions of the electrical power grid, resulting in cascading failures that would affect key services such as water supply, healthcare, and transportation. Space weather has the potential to simultaneously affect and disrupt health and safety across entire continents. Successfully preparing for space weather events is an all-of-nation endeavor that requires partnerships across governments, emergency managers, academia, the media, the insurance industry, non-profits, and the private sector.

Back in April 2017, we wrote an article titled ‘Yesterday’s Broad Power Outage Likely Caused By Geomagnetic Storm‘. While everyone thought terrorism was to blame, we correctly pointed out that large power failures in major US cities was due to an intense geomagnetic storm registering 8-10 on K-Planetary Index.

Earthsky.org provides an easy understanding of what is a cornoal mass ejection…

A CME can launch a billion tons of plasma from the sun’s surface into space, at speeds of over a million miles per hour. Every so often, the sun burps. But, unlike myself, when the sun burps, it does so with the power of 20 million nuclear bombs. These hiccups are known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs)—powerful eruptions near the surface of the sun driven by kinks in the solar magnetic field. The resulting shocks ripple through the solar system and can interrupt satellites and power grids on Earth.

Back to the exercise on November 04-06, the US Department of Defense headquarters entity will work with the US Army and US Air-Force MARS organizations and the Amateur Radio community to request status reports for 3,143 US counties. During the exercise, communication frequencies will use HF NVIS, VHF, UHF, and non-internet linked Amateur Radio repeaters.

In addition, Army MARS Program Manager Paul English said,

We want to continue building on the outstanding cooperative working relationship with the ARRL and the Amateur Radio community,” English said. “We want to expand the use of the 60-meter interop channels between the military and amateur community for emergency communications, and we hope the Amateur Radio community will give us some good feedback on the use of both the 5-MHz interop and the new 13-MHz broadcast channels as a means of information dissemination during a very bad day scenario.

Full Report from The National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL):
http://www.arrl.org/news/communications-interoperability-training-with-amateur-radio-community-set

Bizarrely enough, this was first reported by Rob Dew of InfoWars, the US Department of Defense (DOD) training exercise will occur on ANTIFA’s day of rage across the United States.

On refusefascism.org, a post titled: November 4 It Begins: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go! has more than 33,000 shares on Facebook…. The post explains what the group’s intentions are during the day of rage.

The bottom line: The United States government is quietly preparing for a major space-weather event to paralyze communication systems and energy grids across the entire country. As a citizen, you’re not allowed to know this knowledge and frankly you will not be prepared—only the government will be. The writing is on the wall of what is coming through an executive order and DOD drills.

No wonder public trust with government is at historic lows, because you’re not allowed to know the truth.

Simultaneously, the wealthiest families who own mega corporations in the United States are plowing millions into their proxy armies called community organizing groups. Let’s just hope, a coronal mass ejection doesn’t occur when these severely misguided folks are protesting.

 

[angelburst29]

James Alex Fields, the Ohio man who stands accused of killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others in a vehicle ramming attack during the infamous Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally, has has been charged with first-degree murder.

Charlottesville Hate Rally Car Ramming Suspect Charged With First-Degree Murder
https://sputniknews.com/us/201712151060014913-charlottesville-car-ramming-murder-charges/

Prosecutors upgraded the charge against Fields from second- to first-degree murder during a Thursday preliminary hearing, and the judge certified it. Fields' defense attorney, Denise Lumsford, did not protest the upgrade, and Field himself was reportedly silent, AP reports.

Heyer's mother was present for the hearing, which saw the judge also certify the charges of one felony count of hit and run, five felony counts of malicious wounding and three felony counts of aggravated malicious wounding.

Fields' case will now be presented to a grand jury for indictment.

The case attracted significant media attention due to its connection to the August 12 rally, which saw 14 others wounded as white nationalist and white supremacist protesters clashed with police as well as left-wing counter-protesters. Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was one such counter-protester. Two police officers were also killed when the helicopter they were using to monitor the situation crashed.

Lumsford has previously argued that the 20-year-old Fields was not a participant in the rallies, but a photograph taken earlier in the day places Fields at the scene. There is little doubt that Fields was behind the wheel of the car that took Heyer's life.

Reportedly, Fields soiled himself during the attack and burst into tears when he later found out that Heyer had died.

The violent protests attracted further attention when US President Donald Trump impugned "hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides," instead of directly condemning white nationalism as many, including members of his own cabinet, had done.

Virginia law defines first-degree murder as the "willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing" of another person. It is a Class-2 felony and can be punished with life in prison. Second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of 40 years.

 

[angelburst29]

Less than six months after the “Unite the Right” rally on the campus of the University of Virginia led to a white supremacist running over counter-protesters with lethal results, a new report indicates that white supremacist fliers are popping up on the grounds of more and more college campuses across the country.

White Supremacist Propaganda Spreads Like Wildfire on US College Campuses 03.02.2018
https://sputniknews.com/us/201802031061318229-white-supremacist-propaganda-wildfire-college/

Since September 1, 2016, the Anti-Defamation League has recorded 346 instances of white supremacist propaganda everywhere from community colleges to Ivy League schools. Fliers, stickers, banners and posters qualified as instances of propaganda.

The propaganda contains hateful messages attacking Jews, blacks, Muslims, immigrants and the LGBT community, according to the ADL, while promoting an urgent need to "save" the white race.

Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia and Ohio have been the hardest hit, the ADL said January 29.

Identity Evropa, Patriot Front, Vanguard America, a group called The Right Stuff, neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, the Daily Stormer and the American Renaissance were the most prolific propagandizers, according to ADL.

The Unite the Right group at Charlottesville, Virginia chanted slogans like "white lives matter," "Jews will not replace us" and "blood and soil" while walking through the campus with torches to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue by the city government. Lee was the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, one of the primary armies of the secessionist Confederacy during the American Civil War and was a slave owner.

Ironically, the "patriotic" effort to uphold Lee's legacy leaves out the fact that Lee effectively renounced his US citizenship to fight for the Confederate Army in 1861, before eventually surrendering in 1865. After the war, and until Lee died, his US citizenship was not restored.

 

[angelburst29]

Jason Kessler, the organizer of the August 2017 neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that left one protester dead and 19 injured, as well as two police officers dead, has successfully had his permit approved for a rally in Washington, DC, on the one-year anniversary of the fateful weekend.

21.06.2018 - Organizer from Charlottesville Planning Rally Outside White House
Organizer From Charlottesville Planning Rally Outside White House

Kessler's permit for a "white civil rights" rally was approved Wednesday by the US National Park Service, to be held at Lafayette Park in the nation's capital, immediately north of the White House. The permit has not been issued yet as the agency continues to gather information about the event, according to WTVR.

The rally is slated for the second week of August.

Kessler tried and failed to obtain an anniversary permit for the so-called "Unite the Right" held rally in Charlottesville on August 11 and 12 of 2017 but was denied by the city, citing a danger to public safety. Kessler sued Charlottesville in response to the denial on March 6 of this year and the matter remains unresolved in court.

The Charlottesville rally was held under the pretense of protesting the city's imminent removal of a statue to Confederate General Robert E Lee. It began on August 11 with a torch-lit march that chanted neo-Nazi slogans such as "Blood and soil" and "Jews will not replace us," and saw one brawl that night.

The following day, many more fights broke out. One so-called white supremacist protester drove a car through a crowd of counter-demonstrators marching peacefully, wounding 19 people and killing one person. Later, two police officers died after they crashed their helicopter over a golf course nearby.

"This year we have a new purpose," Kessler said, according to DC's local ABC affiliate, "and that's to talk about the civil rights abuse that happened in Charlottesville, Virginia last year."

At a previous rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on June 25, 2017, Kessler told the crowd, "Lincoln was a traitor. Our entire country would be better off if the South had won the Civil War."

An anti-fascist organizer in Washington, DC, told Sputnik News Wednesday night that there are plans to protest the neo-Nazi event.

 

[angelburst29]

A federal grand jury in Virginia indicted an Ohio man Wednesday for committing acts of deadly violence that occured in Charlottesville, Virginia, last August.

28.06.2018 - Neo-Nazi Charlottesville Car Attacker Charged with Hate Crimes
Neo-Nazi Charlottesville Car Attacker Charged with Hate Crimes

James Alex Fields, 21, drove through a crowd of peaceful protesters, killing one and injuring 19 others. Fields is being charged with a slew of hate crimes.

Prior to the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville on August 12, Fields used social media to express "support of the social and racial policies of Adolf Hitler and Nazi-era Germany, including the Holocaust," and other racist views, according to the indictment.

Unite the Right was organized by various so-called alt-right groups to oppose the town's vote to remove a statue honoring Confederate General Robert E Lee, an icon from the US Civil War. In photographs of the protest, Fields can be seen carrying a shield with the logo of the neo-Nazi group Vanguard America.

On August 11, Fields received a text message from a family member telling him to be careful. He wrote back, "We're not the ones who need to be careful," and attached an image of Adolf Hitler to the SMS, the indictment states.

After the August 12 rally was dispersed by police prior to the start time on the permit, protesters from both sides continued to traverse Charlottesville's downtown area. Fields then walked back to his car and started driving around.

At the end of a narrow one-way street, Fields encountered a large group of left-wing counterdemonstrators marching together. He idled the car, watched the left-wing group for a bit, then reversed his car. Meanwhile, the group started to make its way through the street where Fields' car was.

Fields hit the acceleration pedal, aiming his car directly at the crowd of people who did not share his political views. The car only stopped driving upon collision with another car. Then, he reversed again and fled. Police picked him up a short time later.

The impact sent people flying through the air and trapped them between vehicles. The collision was so potent that Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal, was killed as a result of Fields' actions. Nineteen other people sustained injuries, which ranged in intensity from life-threatening to minor, then-Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said at the time.

The officer retired in the wake of the rally amid fierce public criticism of police inaction.

The street where Fields attacked and killed Heyer has since been renamed Heather Heyer Way. Heyer's mother spoke to reporters outside US Attorney Thomas Cullen's news conference announcing the charges Wednesday, two months shy of the one year anniversary of her daughter's passing. "She's still my baby girl, even after she's dead. So I wanted to be here to hear what was happening."

The US Justice Department charged Fields with 30 counts of hate crimes. He previously faced charges of murder in the first degree on the state level, which typically means that the suspect's killing was premeditated. As a consequence of the state-level charges brought down in January, he faced a potential sentencing length from 20 years to life behind bars.

"We remain resolute that hateful ideologies will not have the last word and that their adherents will not get away with violent crimes against those they target," US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in the Justice Department statement. "Today's indictment should send a clear message to every would-be criminal in America that we aggressively prosecute violent crimes of hate that threaten the core principles of our nation."

The accused reportedly showed no signs of remorse as videos of his attack were played.

Fields will stand trial of charges levied by Virginia state prosecutors in November.

 

[Ca.]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1027621812765646848

The governor of Virginia has declared a state of emergency for the anniversary of the Charlottesville protests.

A rally in Charlottesville on Aug. 12, 2017, led to clashes between groups affiliated with “Unite the Right” and protesters, culminating in the death of Heather Heyer, 32.

Wrong Place Wrong Time ?

Hate Crimes

James Alex Fields Jr., 21, was indicted on 30 counts, including a hate crime act that resulted in Heyer’s death, after driving his car into a crowd of protesters in the town and raming into Heyer.

“At the Department of Justice, we remain resolute that hateful ideologies will not have the last word and that their adherents will not get away with violent crimes against those they target,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement when the charges were announced in June.

“Last summer’s violence in Charlottesville cut short a promising young life and shocked the nation. Today’s indictment should send a clear message to every would-be criminal in America that we aggressively prosecute violent crimes of hate that threaten the core principles of our nation.”

Besides Heyer’s death, 35 people were injured.

State of Emergency

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and the City of Charlottesville announced on Aug. 8, a state of emergency for the state and city for Aug. 10, 11, and 12.

Northam noted that multiple events are planned for the weekend and that the state of emergency will make it easier for law enforcement to plan crowd control and other operations.

“Virginia continues to mourn the three Virginians who lost their lives in the course of the demonstrations a year ago. We hope the anniversary of those events passes peacefully,” said Governor Northam in a statement, referring to Heyer and two Virginia state police troopers who died after their helicopter crashed.

“I am urging Virginians to make alternative plans to engaging with planned demonstrations of hate, should those arise. Declaring this state of emergency in advance of the anniversary and the related planned events will help us ensure that the state and the city have all available resources to support emergency responders in case they are needed.”

The state of emergency enables a range of state agencies to deploy to Charlottesville and northern Virginia, according to the governor’s office. In addition, it activates the Virginia Emergency Operations Center to coordinate state resources and allocates $2 million to pay for the response.

More than 1,000 state, federal, and local law enforcement members are expected in the area over the weekend, reported The Daily Progress.

Ban on Weapons and Masks

The city said in a press release that a number of items, such as pellet guns, poles, and knives, are banned from the downtown area for the weekend. The long list includes a variety of items that could be used as weapons.

However, firearms will not be banned, according to Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney.

“[Handguns] are not on that list; we have to honor your Second Amendment rights,” Brackney said, reported The Daily Progress. “This has its challenges.”

Law enforcement officials will also be enforcing a state law that prohibits people from wearing masks in certain places.
From NTD.tv

Charlottesville - YouTube