Ráiteas / Statement: 13/08/17

“Yesterday in Charlottesville USA, a huge crowd of fascists, neo-Nazis and racists gathered to protest the removal of a statue of a confederate general from the town. This group carried lit torches, batons and shields, and attempted to march on a gathering of community/church members in an act reminiscent of the anti-integration marches of by-gone years. This mob was confronted Anti-fascists on the streets determined to confront such an overt display of right-wing racism. Oddly enough the police not only allowed those who were so obviously armed to march the streets, they failed miserably to protect the unarmed opponents of this mob. Running battles carried on for hours and as time passed on the fascists were emboldened by the lack of action by police or state forces. This inaction stands in stark contrast to the peaceful water protests of the Native Americans or other protests seeking equality, civil rights or even justice for those killed by police in suspicious circumstances.

Sadly the culmination of the aggression of the fascists and the inaction of police resulted in a man ramming his car into a crowd of anti-fascists, causing multiple injuries and one death (to date). 32 year old Heather Heyer was mown down by this man, who escaped temporarily in his badly damaged car. In a sad indictment of Donald Trump, he failed miserably to condemn this specific action but lumped all the days confrontations into the same bracket.

In a sad twist of faith, a police helicopter that was operational covering the protest crashed into a field killing two police officers.”

Críoch/ENDS

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