By Garth A. Rose
At the time of writing it has been almost two full days since violence and tragedy occurred In Charlottesville, Virginia. The violence resulted from a protest of white supremacist against removing the statute of a Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee.
The statue is ironically located in a park named Emancipation Park in Charlottesville. As the protestors prepared to march in a “Unite the Right Rally” in Charlottesville on Saturday morning, they clashed with counter protestors.
Attorney killed during protests
In the resulting violence broadcast vividly on national television, several people were injured and a counter protestor, attorney Heather Heyer,32, killed. Most of the injuries and Heyer’s death occurred when 20-year old James Alex Fields Jr. allegedly drove his car through a crowd of counter protestors.
Fields was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, among other counts, for the alleged attack. He appeared in court on Monday morning, and was refused bond.
Department of Justice
On Saturday, a federal civil rights investigation was launched by the Department of Justice into the deadly car-ramming attack.
“The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice,” US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Saturday. “When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated.”
The FBI has joined the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia in a civil rights investigation into the car plowing through the crowd of counter protestors.
Trump criticized
President Donald Trump has attracted bipartisan and public criticism for not calling out Saturday protestors as racists, bigots or white supremacist. In a comment he made on Saturday, he said “many sides” were to blame for the violence in Charlottesville. On Sunday, an official White House statement condemned white supremacists and racial bigotry. Also, one of the president’s chief advisor, his daughter Ivanka Trump, also condemned the white supremacists.
Up to late Monday morning, President Trump had not specially condemned the protestors as either racists or white supremacists. He posted several tweets on Monday morning, nut none dealt with the violence in Charlottesville. He was, however, scheduled to make a public address later on Monday and It’s speculated he would address the incidents in Virginia last Saturday.
Caribbean American community
The Caribbean-American community in South Florida has overwhelmingly condemned the “Unite for Right Rally” that sparked Saturday’s violence. CNW found consensus among Caribbean Americans in the region that, “In a diverse community like Florida, any effort to make one race supreme over another is wrong. This should in no way be condoned or tolerated.”
