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THE MAYOR OF Charlottesville has called the killing of a woman and the injury of others during a white nationalist march yesterday “a terrorist attack”.
There were widespread scenes of violence yesterday in the Virgina city as white supremacist and nationalist demonstrations clashed with counter-protesters.
The violence came to a head when a car plowed into a group of counter-demonstrators, killing one and injuring 19 others.
Activist Heather Heyer died in the incident. The car’s driver, James Alex Fields Jr., was charged with second-degree murder and other counts.
Speaking today, Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer labelled the incident a “terrorist attack with a car used as a weapon”.
He made the comments in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka weighed in on the violence with an appeal for unity, saying there was “no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis”.
“There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis,” she said.
We must all come together as Americans — and be one country UNITED. #Charlottesville
President Trump, who has a following among white supremacist groups attracted to his nationalistic rhetoric, has come under fire for blaming the Charlottesville violence on hatred and bigotry “on many sides”.
Senator Ted Cruz, who lost a campaign to become the Republican presidential nominee, has called for the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute the incident as an “act of domestic terrorism”.
Investigation
US federal investigators said that they have opened a civil rights investigation into the circumstances that led to the driver to plow a car into the crowd.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the top law enforcement official in the country, said “the violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice”.
Sessions said he had spoken with FBI Director Chris Wray, along with FBI agents on the scene and law enforcement officials from Virginia, the state home to Charlottesville.
“The Richmond FBI Field Office, the Civil Rights Division and the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia have opened a civil rights investigation into the circumstances of the deadly vehicular incident that occurred earlier Saturday morning,” they said in a statement.
Part of what made the case become a federal one was that the chief suspect, James Alex Fields, Jr., crossed state lines, traveling from Ohio to Virginia.
Hundreds had descended on Charlottesville either to march in or rail against a “Unite the Right Rally.” Unrest quickly flared even as riot police and national guard troops flooded the city’s downtown.
© – AFP 2017 With AP and Cormac Fitzgerald
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Far left
@Seamus Balfe: That’s what we need more of.
They are having a slash against the wind
Far Left vs Far Right, Muslim population wanting their own laws, France is on the edge & will be the first European country to descend into chaos. Macron warning about Putin & the Far Right, when the fact is, he failed the French people in his terms of office & France has splintered since under his watch. Putin doesn’t have to consider invading Europe, as it will destroy itself from within, led by incompetent leaders like Macron. Amazing how the Far Left are seen as acceptable, even the French Communist party, considering the history of Communism & the massacres inflicted on people.
@SV3tN8M4: I see reactions from people who are unaware that policies on climate modelling or immigration are influenced by the academic community acting through social politics.
Left and right politics are governed by forces people do not sufficiently appreciate. Even though the combination of civil laws and laws of nature (Enlightenment) was meant to replace monarchies and church hierarchies, it was based on awful foundations in the late 17th century.
We inherit the worst and most unstable part of that subculture with many as victims.
A win of RN seems inevitable and that’s a good thing.
White flag
The new Netflix doc about the Nazi’s – ‘Evil on Trial’ is really good, even if you’ve seen a lot on the subject already. We can never have enough ‘timely reminders’ about what happened. Right now it really is timely. So many of the same things are being said, spouted and dispersed but on a much larger scale. The disinformation is turbo charged.
One of the main things that comes across is how much disbelief there is within the larger more apathetic populace. They assume there will be enough safeguards in place and that authoritarians aren’t fully serious when they clearly tell you what they are going to do if put in a position of power.
There’s lots of incredible footage that really drives home (once again) how easily people are caught up in frenzies, if it looks like a large enough crowd are behind a movement.
You can see the seeds being planted here with all of the obvious accounts that are there to pump one part of the Irish media with far right ideas on top of X/Twitter, Facebook and all the rest. There’s so many lies being told and as ever with the far right all your problems will allegedly be solved by getting rid of a certain group of people. As if. Simple ‘solutions’ for the simple minded. You might be annoyed about current problems in your society but far right is never ever the way to go.
@SerotoninWars: or have a look at the tattooist of austwhich
Good. Keep the demons out.
I for one think that The Judaen People’s Front are better than The People’s Front of Judea!
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