Charlottesville

So, they should have limited the number of protesters, with whatever consequences. Based on the preparation it involved, they would not have taking it lightly, IMHO,

Is not clear whether ACLU defended communists and antiwar protesters at the time.

Edit:

https://www.propublica.org/article/...up-the-right-wing-cause-after-charlottesville

It always comes back around to Russia at some point.

Surely, they are the only ones doing it...

They are friggin' everywhere. Sometimes I try to map out interlinking networks of pages spreading Russian propaganda, hoping to create an evidence chain that will convince people of the breadth and depth of Russian active measures. But it is too much work. Spam takes a second to create but hours to analyze so the Russians have the advantage on this battle ground.

Just one example. I searched for a guy in the news recently, Allen Armentrout, and saw Russian text beside a video.



I clicked and watched the video and scrolled to a comment that seemed to come from an actual human being, Vincent De.



So I clicked that guy's profile. What do I see?



I see English as a second language, an over-the-top anti-Hillary meme in May 2017 when nobody cares, and Anonymous (pbuh). Looks like one of the many Russian bots but also maybe a real guy living in So Cal. Or maybe not because there are no pics of him unequivocally in a US location.

Scrolling his profile page I come across the obligatory anti-Soros meme.


George Soros, the anti-fascist, anti-communist, pro-American capitalist generously donating to charities that serve the interests of open societies everywhere. His only crime, as far as I can tell, is his long history of criticizing Vladimir Putin. Stunning that most Americans both left and right now denounce him as a shady character. Just goes to show that Rwanda could happen here because we are equally vulnerable to sustained black PR. But I digress.

Lots of tats so maybe Russian mafia.


I went a little further mapping out the social network and then I got bored.

Russia would have no influence here were it not for our own domestic oligarchs aligned with their interests. It is the collusion between both networks that is of greatest concern to the future of our planet.

White supremacist Christopher Cantwell surrenders to police | CNN

Quote:

Christopher Cantwell, a white supremacist organizer known for a Vice video about a torch-lit Charlottesville, Virginia march, has turned himself in, University of Virginia Police said Wednesday.

UVA police had issued an arrest warrant for Cantwell on two counts of illegal use of tear gas and one count of malicious bodily injury with a caustic substance in connection with the August 11 march on the school campus.

Cantwell, of Keene, New Hampshire, surrendered to police in Lynchburg, Virginia. He is currently being held at the Blue Ridge Regional Jail pending transport to Charlottesville, police said.

Developing story - more to come

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/23/us/urgent--christopher-cantwell-surrenders/

But did he cried?

Cantwell is from NH. Lynchburg is over an hour south of Charlottesville. So I wonder why he went there. Maybe to visit Liberty University? It's not home to the alt right but it is home to the far right.

Attacks on "liberal" college campuses frighten conservative parents and make Liberty seem more appealing. So Cantwell may have some sympathizers there.

A while back Liberty had serious financial problems and the Moonies bailed them out. I wonder how they're doing financially...

Okay I looked into this. Liberty has about a bajillion students (80,000). For a school that has long been a joke they're doing quite well financially. Once I realized this I had an "ah ha!" Warning: speculation.

Cantwell's tears were not meant for his alt right bros. Those guys hate crying. So who was he trying to impress?

A daddy! As a drug addict with a history of legal problems he's probably played the water-works card a bunch of times. That's the customary "send money and gimmie a lawyer" shtick.

Now I am curious to know more about the sugar daddies helping these alt right losers.

Eight people have been charged for that incident. I don't think the authorities are treating it as "acceptable." So please watch your hyperbole.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_t..._right_wing_information_on_twitter_after.html

You don't need statues that basically say, "I did my best for slavery." Lol.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...ted-beating-charlottesville-article-1.3445333
Teen white nationalist busted in connection to beating of Deandre Harris at Charlottesville rally

http://gizmodo.com/new-video-shows-man-shooting-gun-near-crowd-of-counter-1798463559

https://thinkprogress.org/charlottesville-protest-arrests-9484856f4489/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-charlottesville-arrest-0827-story.html

'We Are Living Through a Battle for the Soul of This Nation'

The former vice president calls on Americans to do what President Trump has not.

By Joe Biden

Quote:

In January of 2009, I stood waiting in Wilmington, Delaware, for a train carrying the first African American elected president of the United States. I was there to join him as vice president on the way to a historic Inauguration. It was a moment of extraordinary hope for our nation — but I couldn’t help thinking about a darker time years before at that very site.

My mind’s eye drifted back to 1968. I could see the flames burning Wilmington, the violence erupting on the news of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the federal troops taking over my city.

I was living history — and reliving it — at the same time. And the images racing through my mind were a vivid demonstration that when it comes to race in America, hope doesn’t travel alone. It’s shadowed by a long trail of violence and hate.

In Charlottesville, that long trail emerged once again into plain view not only for America, but for the whole world to see. The crazed, angry faces illuminated by torches. The chants echoing the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the 1930s. The neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white supremacists emerging from dark rooms and remote fields and the anonymity of the web into the bright light of day on the streets of a historically significant American city.

If it wasn’t clear before, it’s clear now: We are living through a battle for the soul of this nation.

The giant forward steps we have taken in recent years on civil liberties and civil rights and human rights are being met by a ferocious pushback from the oldest and darkest forces in America. Are we really surprised they rose up? Are we really surprised they lashed back? Did we really think they would be extinguished with a whimper rather than a fight?

Did we think the charlatans and the con-men and the false prophets who have long dotted our history wouldn’t revisit us, once again prop up the immigrant as the source of all our troubles, and look to prey on the hopelessness and despair that has grown up in the hollowed-out cities and towns of Ohio and Michigan and Pennsylvania and the long-forgotten rural stretches of West Virginia and Kentucky?

We have fought this battle before — but today we have a special challenge.

Today we have an American president who has publicly proclaimed a moral equivalency between neo-Nazis and Klansmen and those who would oppose their venom and hate.

We have an American president who has emboldened white supremacists with messages of comfort and support.

This is a moment for this nation to declare what the president can’t with any clarity, consistency, or conviction: There is no place for these hate groups in America. Hatred of blacks, Jews, immigrants — all who are seen as “the other” — won’t be accepted or tolerated or given safe harbor anywhere in this nation.

That’s the America I know. That’s who I believe we are. And in the hours and days after Charlottesville, America’s moral conscience began to stir. The nation’s military leadership immediately took a firm stand. Some of America’s most prominent CEOs spoke out. Political, community, and faith leaders raised their voices. Charitable organizations have begun to take a stand. And we should never forget the courage of that small group of University of Virginia students who stared down the mob and its torches on that Friday night.

The greatness of America is that — not always at first, and sometimes at enormous pain and cost — we have always met Lincoln’s challenge to embrace the “better angels of our nature.” Our history is proof of what King said — the long arc of history does “bend towards justice.”

A week after Charlottesville, in Boston, we saw the truth of America: Those with the courage to oppose hate far outnumber those who promote it.

Then a week after Boston, we saw the truth of this president: He won’t stop. His contempt for the U.S. Constitution and willingness to divide this nation knows no bounds. Now he’s pardoned a law-enforcement official who terrorized the Latino community, violated its constitutional rights, defied a federal court order to stop, and ran a prison system so rife with torture and abuse he himself called it a “concentration camp.”

You, me, and the citizens of this country carry a special burden in 2017. We have to do what our president has not. We have to uphold America’s values. We have to do what he will not. We have to defend our Constitution. We have to remember our kids are watching. We have to show the world America is still a beacon of light.

Joined together, we are more than 300 million strong. Joined together, we will win this battle for our soul. Because if there’s one thing I know about the American people, it’s this: When it has mattered most, they have never let this nation down.

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/joe-biden-after-charlottesville/538128/

Charlottesville White Nationalists Planned for Violence, Chats Show

By David Z. Morris, Fortune

Quote:

Well before a white nationalist “Unite the Right” demonstration turned deadly in Charlottesville this month, attendees were planning for violence, according to leaked online chats. In private chat channels, they shared advice on weaponry and tactics, including repeatedly broaching the idea of driving vehicles through opposition crowds. After the vehicular attack which killed counterprotestor Heather Heyer, users of the channel celebrated the event.

The discussions took place on a private channel created using Discord, a service primarily intended for gamers. Hundreds of screenshots of the exchanges were released this week by Unicorn Riot, a left-wing activist group, which said they were shared by an anonymous source. The records also included audio recordings of planning meetings.

While much of the discussion centered on flags, chants, and other forms of speech, the leaked exchanges also included advice on weapon construction. “You want something designed for longitudinal stress,” wrote one poster. “[Three] whacks and that thing is breaking.” Other topics included body armor and shield design.

Users also shared memes alluding to using vehicles against opponents.

There’s no indication that James Alex Fields, the driver of the car that killed Heyer and injured more than a dozen others, was part of the Discord discussion, but his act was celebrated and defended by users, including some who edited images of the carnage into memes that were intended to be humorous.

Organizers of the event told Wired that the leaked chats appeared authentic, but emphasized that they had repeatedly urged nonviolence. Nonetheless, a lawyer for two women injured in Charlottesville said that the leaked chats could form “the crux of the case” because they demonstrated a desire for violence.

The records could also have implications for future efforts to organize white supremacist events. While the First Amendment protects the right to speech and assembly for even the most heinous groups and ideas, it does not protect speech if it calls for and is likely to lead to “imminent lawless action.” According to legal experts speaking to Wired, signs of “preparation for illegal activity” could make it more likely that future events organized by related groups could be legally restricted.

Following the protest and attack, Discord suspended the group's private chat channel.

More at http://fortune.com/2017/08/26/charlottesville-violence-leaked-chats/

http://www.ajc.com/news/local/warra...arlottesville-beating/c3KnAXcx0p4M1RJatJgXzN/

Strange behavior...

Read what Susan Bro, Heather Heyer’s mother, said during her tribute at the VMA Awards

By Emily Yahr, The Washington Post

Excerpt:

Here are Bro’s remarks in full.

“Thank you. I love you guys, too. Only 15 days ago, my daughter, Heather, was killed as she protested racism. I miss her, but I know she is here tonight.

I have been deeply moved to see people across the world, the whole world, find inspiration in her courage. Today, I am announcing the launch of the Heather Heyer Foundation, a nonprofit organization that will provide scholarships to help more people join Heather’s fight against hatred. Please visit our website to help me make Heather’s death count.

I want people to know that Heather never marched alone. She was always joined by people from every race and every background in this country.

In that spirit, MTV has decided to honor all six nominees for Best Fight Against the System. Through their diversity, these six videos show there are many ways to take action and many battlegrounds in the fight for social good.

Big Sean decries violence. Alessia Cara spoke out about body shaming. The ‘Hamilton’ mixtape and John Legend both took on the targeting of immigrants. Logic and Damian Lemar Hudson celebrated diversity. Taboo and Shailene Woodley rebelled against government exploitation.

I congratulate all these artists on their VMA tonight. And I look forward to the important work that they, and all of you, will do together to make the world a better, kinder, place.”

Though current events weren’t often mentioned by the celebrities at the VMAs, in the beginning of the show, actress Paris Jackson (the 19-year-old daughter of Michael Jackson) urged the audience to stand up and speak out against hate.

“Let’s leave here tonight remembering that we must show these Nazi white supremacist jerks in Charlottesville and all over the country that as a nation with liberty as our slogan, we have zero tolerance for their violence, their hatred, and their discrimination,” she said as the crowd cheered. “We must resist.”

More at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...other-said-during-her-tribute-the-vma-awards/

Come at me Bro

Alex Michael Ramos looks like the kind of person the white supremacists would want to deport.

Video: Racist Protestor Fires Gun - Charlottesville Cops Ignore | The Jimmy Dore Show



As White Nationalist in Charlottesville Fired, Police ‘Never Moved’ | The New York Times

Officials have insisted that no “stand down” order was issued, and a state police spokeswoman said troopers did not hear the shot. But many people suspect the inaction was deliberate, because just a month earlier, the police were heavily criticized for responding harshly at a Ku Klux Klan rally where anti-Klan protesters were sprayed with tear gas and arrested.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/25/us/charlottesville-protest-police.html

Virginia received DHS warning before Charlottesville rally

Homeland Security alerted officials to potential for 'most violent' clash between white supremacists and anarchists.

By Josh Meyer, POLITICO

Quote:

The Department of Homeland Security issued a confidential warning to law enforcement authorities three days before the deadly Aug. 12 Charlottesville protest rally, saying that an escalating series of clashes had created a powder keg that would likely make the event “among the most violent to date” between white supremacists and anarchists.

The “law enforcement sensitive” assessment, obtained by POLITICO and reported for the first time, raises questions about whether Charlottesville city and Virginia state authorities dropped the ball before, and during, a public event that was widely expected to draw huge crowds of armed, emotional and antagonistic participants from around the country.

The Aug. 9 report by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis was done in coordination with local, state and federal authorities at the Virginia Fusion Center. It stated that white supremacists and anti-fascist “antifa” extremists had clashed twice before in Charlottesville, at a white nationalist rally on May 13 and a Ku Klux Klan gathering July 7. At each event, “anarchist extremists” attacked protesters who had been issued permits, leading to fights, injuries, arrests and at least two felony charges of assault and battery.

And both sides were clearly gearing up for an unprecedented confrontation in the weeks leading up to the Aug. 12 “Unite the Right” rally and a weekend of events planned around it by white supremacist rally organizers and those protesting it.

"Anarchist extremists and white supremacist extremists online are calling on supporters to be prepared for or to instigate violence at the 12 August rally,” the assessment warned.

One “probable” white supremacist, it said, had posted an online "call to arms,” saying “antifa must be destroyed.”

“They predicted it,” one senior law enforcement analyst from another state said of the assessment. Each side was saying, “'All right everybody, go get your weapons, and we're gonna go kick their asses.' And that’s exactly what happened in Charlottesville.”

Three days after the DHS report was distributed to law enforcement officials, hundreds of combatants, many of them armed, collided at the rally at Charlottesville’s Emancipation Park, a flashpoint between the feuding groups since the city changed its name from Robert E. Lee Park in June. After a day of violent street fights, a suspected neo-Nazi sympathizer allegedly mowed down a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring at least 19 others.

In the ensuing hours and days, President Donald Trump’s insistence that “both sides” bore responsibility for the violence turned the event into a political watershed, as many Republicans and Democrats chastised him for failing to condemn white supremacists more directly.

Charlottesville police already have been criticized for their response to the rally, including for failing to show up in riot gear and for failing to deploy in large enough numbers to separate the groups, beginning with a torchlight march held by white supremacists the night before.

Some law enforcement experts, when briefed on the DHS report by POLITICO, said it reinforced their concerns about the response of law enforcement agencies in Charlottesville.

"It is unconscionable that with so much advance notice of the declared intentions of extremist groups from the left and right vowing to descend upon Charlottesville that law enforcement was not better prepared,” James Gagliano, a recently retired FBI supervisory special agent, said in an interview.

“Stronger police presence as a deterrence, and better separation between the two groups, should have been part of the security plan,” said Gagliano, a former senior FBI SWAT team leader and crisis management coordinator in New York. Authorities responding to Charlottesville, he said, “were woefully underprepared for something they had advance notice of and plenty of actionable intelligence about.”

City and police officials have defended their actions, saying they did everything they could with the resources they had, but that the sheer number of combatants overwhelmed their response. Some also noted that they tried to shut down the rally altogether, but that a federal court overturned their decision to revoke the rally permit on Aug. 7 after organizers challenged it with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.

When contacted about the DHS report, federal, state and local authorities told POLITICO that they could not comment in detail but confirmed that they were aware of its warnings and had taken appropriate steps to prepare for possible violence.

“The piece was co-authored with the Virginia Fusion Center, with coordination from the Virginia State Police, so they were all properly advised and had, in fact, deployed considerable [law enforcement] resources to the protests/events,” said a senior DHS official. “Beyond that, we're not able to discuss our analytic assessments.”

The DHS official, who said he was not authorized to comment by name about confidential law enforcement reports, referred calls to the Virginia State Police “for comment on how they used the assessment for their force posture for the weekend.”

Corinne Geller, public relations director for the Virginia State Police, said the agency could not discuss the assessment. “Because of the sensitive nature of the report,” she said, “we are not in a position to comment on its contents.”

“It’s fair to say that we were aware that there was the potential for conflict,” and prepared accordingly, Geller said.
Charlottesville police and city officials referred requests for comment to City Manager Maurice Jones, who said, “The city and state police prepared for the worst-case scenarios. We were well aware of the potential for violence.”

“It’s the reason why we sought to move the rally to a more amenable space outside of our dense downtown, where police could more effectively address the safety concerns,” after the court ordered the rally could be held, Jones said. “We hoped that the groups that descended on our community would not engage in violence, but they did, and the police responded in an effort to restore order.”

Jones’ comment underscores how badly Charlottesville officials underestimated the seriousness of the looming potential for violence as outlined in the DHS report, according to the law enforcement official from another state. But he said it should have been obvious to them based just on the huge volumes of threats and counterthreats posted online and on social media.

“That is in line with everything that we have been tracking for months on end,” the official said. The violence, he added, “was planned ahead of time and everybody knew it.”

According to the DHS report, both the white supremacists and antifa groups had spent weeks planning attacks at the two earlier rallies at the park, and at least four other events organized by white supremacist groups dating back more than a year. Those planned attacks, the report said, “are the principal drivers of violence” at recent white supremacist rallies.

Continued at http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/29/charlottesville-violence-homeland-security-242140

'Law and Order: SVU' Season 19 Plans Charlottesville Episode | Hollywood Reporter

Quote:

The recent riots in Charlottesville are about to get the scripted TV treatment. Law & Order: SVU is set to tackle the events for an upcoming season 19 episode, showrunner Michael Chernuchin tells The Hollywood Reporter.

<snipped>

When asked what made the riots ripe material for SVU, Chernuchin was succinct: "Conflict. It's just the state of the world today with everybody. Everybody's political now and everything is political now and we want to deal with that."

<snipped>

"I won't choose a side. I'm going to present both political views and let the audience decide which one is right. My goal, and I told the writers on this on the first day of our writers' room, is at the end of every episode, I want half the audience to throw their shoes at the television and the other half to stand up and cheer."

Whatever: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/li...ason-19-plans-charlottesville-episode-1033727

Just what we need. More fucking false balance.

'Crying Nazi' Christopher Cantwell denied bond on Charlottesville charges | New York Daily News

Quote:

A white supremacist made infamous at the Charlottesville “alt-right” rally has been denied bond by a Virginia court.

Christopher Cantwell, a New Hampshire-based “ethno state” supporter, faces charges of illegal use of a gas and malicious bodily injury after attending the chaotic Unite the Right event that turned deadly earlier this month.

The charges stem from the 36-year-old’s use of pepper spray on counter-protesters, which he says was in self-defense.

He was granted a $25,000 bond on Thursday, though a judge reversed the decision and denied his potential release after prosecutors appealed, according to The Daily Progress.

Cantwell, heavily featured in a viral VICE documentary from Charlottesville, was given the internet nickname “the crying Nazi” after he posted a video of himself breaking down while discussing his potential arrest on the charges.

He told the Daily Beast from jail that he takes issue with the name and said “one minute I’m a fucking white supremacist and the next minute I’m a fucking crybaby”.

“I’m a goddamn human being,” he said.

Cantwell was banned from sites including Facebook after the VICE film, where he said that he did not start fights but “we’ll fucking kill these people if we have to.”

Snorts: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...ond-charlottesville-charges-article-1.3459091

Shaun King's Charlottesville crusade: Find the white supremacists who beat a black man in an attack captured on video

By Ian Shapira, The Washington Post

Quote:

The videos show how the beating unfolded, revealing its brutality and shocking speed from multiple perspectives.

On Aug. 12, white supremacists at the “Unite the Right” rally in downtown Charlottesville converged on counterprotesters outside the Market Street parking garage — a facility right next to the Charlottesville Police Department.

First, a white supremacist attempted to spear a counterprotester with the pole of a Confederate flag. Then, DeAndre Harris, a former special-education instructional assistant, swung a flashlight at the man, possibly striking him.

Then, the skirmish erupted into a full-throttle attack on Harris. Six white supremacists rushed the 20-year-old African American who had fled into the parking garage, kicking him to the ground and pummeling him with what appeared to be wooden sticks and a large board. Harris sustained a spinal injury and a deep head laceration that required 10 staples, according to his Philadelphia-based attorney, S. Lee Merritt.

Over the next few days, as people uploaded videos of the fight, a Black Lives Matter activist took it upon himself to do what law enforcement agencies apparently weren’t doing: trying to identify the six attackers so they could be arrested. Shaun King, who at the time was a New York Daily News columnist and is now a writer in residence at a project at Harvard Law School, scoured the Web to match old photos of the attackers with images from the Charlottesville fight. He bore down deep into Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere, looking for associates of the men who could confirm first and last names.

As of Thursday, King was credited with identifying two of the alleged assailants: Daniel P. Borden, 18, of Ohio and Alex Michael Ramos, 33, of Georgia. Both were arrested in their home states and charged with malicious wounding. The other four men haven’t been officially named, but King said he hasn’t stopped trying.

“I spoke to the Charlottesville Police Department, two FBI agents, and the state police. It was surreal. The only thing they knew about the attackers was stuff they got from my [social media] timelines!” King said in an interview. “Something had me thinking that the FBI was so sophisticated, that they were running these photos through databases. But they openly said that the only guys they knew were the two guys I had identified. My thought was, ‘This can’t be real.’ ”

Continued at https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...36e762-8cfb-11e7-84c0-02cc069f2c37_story.html

"Neo-Confederate Group That Was Out In Force In C’ville Embraces Violent Turn"

They are pro-secession i.e. Removing the South from the USA.





Here are pictures of the beating in the in the parking garage. Remind me about the "fine people on both sides".

That looks like him center/back and then you can see him walking away in the other picture.

https://warisboring.com/a-convicted-domestic-terrorist-was-at-the-charlottesville-nazi-march/

Aren't convicts prohibited of attending protests ?

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...ond-charlottesville-charges-article-1.3459091
'Crying Nazi' Christopher Cantwell denied bond on Charlottesville charges

This has something to do with it

http://www.dailyprogress.com/news/l...cle_fe984c46-8e72-11e7-9aa6-d34fb61df2fb.html

His bond was denied because he threatened violence so many times.

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch...-donations-through-neo-confederate-hate-group
Tennessee Minister Funneled Christian School Donations Through Neo-Confederate Hate Group

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2015/c-4-and-confederacy