North Carolina-based members of the Ku Klux Klan held a Charlottesville, Virginia rally yesterday to protest the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Their small rally drew over 1,000 counter protesters in response, and from there things got out of hand.
For about a half-hour, around 50 members of the Klan — some wearing hooded white robes — shouted “white power” at Justice Park as more than 1,000 people protested their presence by hurling insults, water bottles and apple cores.
The statue of Robert E. Lee is about our heritage, says the group shouting "white power" at their rally.
When it was all over there were 23 arrests and police had dispersed the crowd with tear gas. It appears the trouble began when the Klan members returned to their cars after their rally to drive back home to Not Virginia, but were followed by a large group of protesters who refused to stand aside to let them leave. Police cleared the protesters out of the way, but:
As the police returned to Justice Park, though, the crowd followed, and “there were a number of incidents, including the use of pepper spray by the crowd,” Miriam Dickler, a city spokeswoman, said in a statement.
At one point, the police again ordered the crowd to disperse, but the protesters remained entrenched. Ms. Dickler said the Virginia State Police then released three canisters of tear gas.
The city of Charlottesville had voted last April to remove and sell the statue, a decision that is on hold after "heritage"-minded groups filed a lawsuit to block the decision. It seems like the solution would be obvious: Surely, 50-odd Klan members could chip in some spare change to protect their "heritage" by buying the statue and moving it to some willing racist bastard's private backyard. Then they could have all the Klan barbecues and Klan family fun days they want, in the shadow of the racist traitor, and everyone would be happy.
1,000 protesters for 50 Klan members, though. That's quite the turnout. It seems America has no intention of letting white nationalism be re-normalized even in this nasty era, whether you call it an American "heritage" or not.