August 12, 2017

"After the [white nationalist] rally at a city park was dispersed, a car plowed into a crowd near the city’s downtown mall, killing at 32-year-old woman..."

"Some 35 were injured; at least 19 in the car crash, according to a spokeswoman for the University of Virginia Medical Center. The authorities did not immediately say whether the episode was related to the white nationalists’ demonstration, but several witnesses and video of the scene suggested that it might have been intentional. Chief Thomas said that a suspect had been taken into custody and that police were treating the episode as a criminal homicide. Witnesses said a crowd of counterdemonstrators, jubilant because the white nationalists had left, was moving up Fourth Street, near the mall, when a gray sports car came down the road and accelerated, mowing down several people and hurling at least two in the air."

The NYT reports.

President Trump said (NYT):
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides... It’s been going on for a long time in our country. It’s not Donald Trump, it’s not Barack Obama."

After calling for the “swift restoration of law and order,” Mr. Trump offered a call for unity among Americans of “all races, creeds and colors.”
And:
“We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!”
Some people think this "on many sides" nonspecificity is a problem. For example, Chuck Schumer: “Until @POTUS specifically condemns alt-right action in Charlottesville, he hasn’t done his job.”

223 comments:

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wwww said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Welcome to a repeat of Bleeding Kansas and expect more flash points as there increasingly is nothing left to hold the country together. Whether knowingly or not, the political leadership and the cultural elites have jettisoned the two primary glues that hold nations together - common ancestry and common religion.

Diversity is not bringing the country together, it's just causing different blocs to form which inevitably will come into conflict. Today's events are a microcosm of that - a statue built by the ancestors of one bloc is found unacceptable by members of a different bloc which is what set up the whole day's events.

The bill is coming due for the last 50 years of culture war and I suspect a real war is going to end up settling the tab.

iowan2 said...

Is far as forcing people to pick a side, an interview that will never happen is the one were the media asks Governor Mc Aulliffe if he would use the power of his office to deny the group the permit to assembly and seek redress from the government.
That's a yes or no question.
The media, and that includes FOX and the conservative print media, will never ask the government if they will deny constitutional rights to preserve safety.

Kevin said...

Blogger Unknown said...
You rightists feel all united now?


...asks the woman who wouldn't condem the shooter at the Congressional softball practice.

The only lefty with any moral authority on this blog is Sunsong.

RichAndSceptical said...

I think Trump mostly nailed it. The rally wasn't the problem, the violence was. Anyone involved in violence should be arrested and charged, regardless of which side they were on.

I would also like a DOJ investigation to see if the civil rights of participants in the permitted rally were infringed on by the Mayor of Charlottesville and the VA Governor.

RichAndSceptical said...

This reminds me of Democrats and some Republicans (including Trump) blaming Pamela Geller for the terrorist attack at her "Draw Muhammad" free speech rally.

Robert Cook said...

"'The left should understand something very well. They are despised as thoroughly as they despise. And they are inferior in numbers, weapons, character, and skill. The only thing keeping them from being hunted down with dogs is the law, and not just the law, the civil structure of which law is a key part. These people want to flout the law, because reasons. They should understand how that's going to work out for them. Not well. Just like 150 years ago when they tried to leave the Union.'

"I'll buy the despising line, but otherwise: so much crazy here."


Boy, I'll say! Especially that bit about "Leftists" trying to leave the union 150 years ago. Crazy and stupid!

Robert Cook said...

"'White nationalists' is kind of a funny designation.
Nationalist is a derogatory term now?"


"White nationalists" are not "nationalists." They're "White nationalists." They advocate for a white nation, with all other ethnic variants of the human race excluded from the nation entirely, if possible, or highly restricted in their freedoms of speech, movement, education, etc., if they cannot all be removed from the the nation physically.

HT said...

Thank you, Robert Cook.

I'm Full of Soup said...

The Dems, like Shumer and the Clintons, have divided us, by color, into voting blocs for 50 years. They sowed the seeds for events like this.

Bruce Hayden said...

"@craig: I believe the Glenn Reynolds is on record suggesting that anyone caught in a crowd surrounding their vehicle feeling threatened should accelerate. You should take up your legal beef with him. I'm confident that he knows more about the law than you do."

Standard for the use of deadly force in shelf-defense is typically a reasonable fear if imminent death or great bodily injury (which typically includes broken bones). So, yes, protesters carrying baseball bats coming towards you could easily qualify for the use of deadly force in self defense. My point in the previous thread was that it is probably going to depend on the jury pool. Citywide would probably get a conviction, because few there would believe that the saintly Antifa types would hurt a fly, and were just carrying the bats on the way to softball practice. Countywide jury pool (more likely, I think, because of the 2nd Degree Murder charge) would see protesters showing up with bats as being up to no good. We shall see. But keep this in mind - both the car and the bats were deadly weapons, legally fairly equivalent to firearms, all capable of being used to exert deadly force. The goal of the driver's attorneys here is to show that he had a reasonable fear of death or great bodily injury at the hands of the Antifa mob. They seem to have already started this with his statements to the police.

Anonymous said...

Paco Wové: "White Nationalist" seems to be the preferred label – so what are these people advocating for? A separate "white" country? Tossing out the darkies? What?

My impression is that "white nationalists" are trying to achieve crudely and explicitly what "anti-racist" (and higher net worth) liberal whites pursue by more subtle and deniable means: a majority-white living environment.

That is, if "white nationalism" comprises a set of coherent goals in the first place.

Ken B said...

Will we hear about root causes, his culture, poverty? /s

mtrobertslaw said...

Radical progressives like Unknown are busy dusting off their "He grew up in abject poverty" play book just in case the crazy driver turns out to be a deranged leftist.

HT said...

Radical progressives like Unknown are busy dusting off their "He grew up in abject poverty" play book just in case the crazy driver turns out to be a deranged leftist.

Seems he's had a horrible life. His father was killed by a drunk driver, according to reports I've read, and his mother is a paraplegic. Not sure about "abject" poverty.

hstad said...

I know everyone in the MSM is up in arms about the "White Nationalists" rioting in Virginia. LOL, just like the MSM was up in arms when "Black Lives Matter" rioted in other cities. What we are beginning to see is fully predicted by the actions of our leaders both Left and Right. The non-stop drum beats of trying to garner media time to get your name out their for whatever reasons. The Leftist neighbor executing his neighbor because of political arguments recently is another example of out of control behavior. If the Left is successful at removing Trump from office, the subsequent violence will make the 1968 Detroit riots look like an old ladies tea party. I am truly astounded that more level headed people are not aware of the extreme danger of fake political narratives.

From: Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."

Paco Wové said...

"His father was killed by a drunk driver, according to reports I've read, and his mother is a paraplegic."

Well, this will sure help her out. <facepalm>

JAORE said...

I have not read all the comments TL;DR. But...

David Duke has a very limited following. It consists, largely, of media types looking to use him as a tar brush.

Bad Lieutenant said...


_That_ is what took three tries?


You're right it was fine the first time. I'd press you to state declaratively what you disagree with, but I'm sure that's too much effort.

MayBee said...

JAORE- exactly. Same with Richard Spencer. Who had ever heard of him until the media dragged him out in public to smear Trump with?

madAsHell said...

I'm really impressed with the language. The antifa, and the alt-right terminology has been foisted upon us by the media, but I'm fairly certain MSM talking heads are not capable of such creativity. Certainly, both terms sprang to life after the inauguration.

I'll assume the truncated anti-facist was first conceived in a text message. I really don't understand the alt-right phrase, but I'm sure it's an anagram for Emmanuel Goldstein.

Somewhere, there has to be a PowerPoint presentation that explained these words as crucial to the narrative. Don't forget the intersectionalities.

hstad said...

LOL-AA deleted my comments about the end of democracy in America. Hey Ann, Obama was the most successful person in history at starting the end of the USA. He gave out freebies like not other politician. Eventually, the fiscal impact breaks the country. Bondage will come again, just like it began.

Jason said...

Heh. I'm a pretty well read, plugged in guy when it comes to US politics and conservatism. Followed Milo, Shapiro, Instapundit, regularly read pieces form the National Review. Interested in US History including the political history of Jim Crow and the Klan and Republican opposition to it.

I never EVER heard of this Spenser guy, ever... until the day AFTER the election.

I turned on NPR News to savor the liberal tears and they couldn't stop talking about the guy.

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