21 Social Media Images from the Charlottesville White Power Rally
White supremacists, members of the KKK, and independent Neo Nazi militias gathered in Virginia this week in an event they called “Unite the Right.” They were met by a group of counter-protestors that included the militant group Antifa, short for anti-fascist.
The violence between the groups ended when an apparent supporter of the “Unite the Right” rally drove a car into a group of protestors Saturday, killing one and injuring 19.
President Donald Trump commented on the violence via his Twitter account while on vacation at his golf club in New Jersey, issuing some seven tweets about it. Here was the most recent one, as of 7:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday. “So sad!”, commented the president. Trump was roundly criticized for his comments that were viewed as “insufficient.”
Here are the events in Charlottesville as they unfolded over Friday and Saturday.
On Friday night, a group of white nationalists gathered while carrying Confederate flags, American flags bearing swastikas, MAGA hats, and holding burning torches. They surrounded a statue of General Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Confederate Army in Virginia from 1862 to 1865. The group of protestors, chanting (among other things), “Jew will not replace us,” remained active overnight.
When photos of the white supremacist rally hit the internet, counter-protestors, including the notoriously violent Antifa, came to meet them.
At 11 a.m. on Saturday morning, the white supremacists and counter-protestors began breaking out into fist-fights, tearing down the police barricades that had been erected between them. The local police force retreated temporarily, returning 30 minutes later with the state National Guard. Around 2 p.m. Saturday, a car with Ohio plates drovr into a group of anti-fascist protestors, killing one and injuring at least 19 others.
Trump then addressed the white power rally using In vague terms in a livestreamed press conference, in which he decried violence that occurs “on many sides.” He repeated the phrase “on many sides,” shaking his head, and then asserted that neither he nor President Barack Obama were to blame for it. Trump repeated a sentiment about coming together.
White supremacists rally surrounding a group of anti-protestor students.
Photos of the gathering hit The New York Times Thursday evening, but close-up shots of the actual protestors went live on Twitter around the same time. The American public was shocked to see many of the white supremacists seig heiling and wearing swastikas.
Other Twitter users pointed out that “blood and soil,” one of the phrases the white supremacists were heard chanting, refers to the idea that ethnic diversity in the United States means “white genocide.” It argues that Caucasian people have a divine right to the soil, and sovereignty, of the United States.
When counter-protestors began to show up, several people in the crowd starting shouting racial slurs at them.
Protestors continued demonstrating into Friday night, and when the sun came up, they were joined by the Virginia National Guard, local police, and a collection of Neo Nazi private militias.
White nationalists and neo-Nazis with body armor and combat weapons evacuate comrades who were pepper sprayed after the 'Unite the Right' rally was delcared a unlawful gathering by Virginia State Police
The physical altercations that erupted were also not a part of the president’s speech. Many of the following photos are disturbing.
A Neo Nazi is treated by a fellow white supremacist following a clash with the opposition.
A counter-protestor, struck above the eye by a Neo Nazi, attempts to wrestle an American flag away.
White supremacists and Neo Nazis meet on East Market Street, and their group runs into anti-facist demonstrators.
Neo Nazis attempt to ram their way through counter protests while wearing homemade riot gear.
A man recovers from a mace attack.
Rescue workers and volunteers tend to anti-fascist demonstrators who were struck by a car.
Rescue aid workers carry away a protestor struck by the car.
Two witnesses to the terrorism attack in Charlottesville comfort each other.
Volunteers attempt to give medical care to a woman struck by the terrorist's car.
Hillary Clinton blamed the violence on white supremacy, Bernie Sanders decried white nationalism and racism, and previous Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio urged the president to “describe events in Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by white supremacists.”
Photos via Reuters / Alejandro Alvarez, Getty Images / Chip Somodevilla, Go Nakamura / NY Daily News (1, 2), Joshua Roberts / Reuters, GO NAKAMURA/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, Paul J. Richards / Getty, NY Daily News
Written by Emily Gaudette
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