Photo of the Dodge Charger about to ram people in Charlottesville. CBS/AP.
One person is dead and nineteen more have been injured at a protest in Charlottesville Virginia after a man rammed his car into a group of Antifa. CBS News. The attack came after a far right protest led by David Duke and Richard Spencer was broken up by police. The White nationalists had mostly left but counter-protesters and Antifa were still there, engaged in an rally that had been declared unlawful. The attacker rammed his Dodge Charger into the crowds and then sped away in what police are calling an intentional attack. The suspect was arrested and has been charged with multiple crimes, including 2nd degree murder. The attack has been widely condemned and President Trump has offered condolences for the victims. Two police officers died in a helicopter crash, though that incident was only tangentially related to the protests/riots.
The moment of impact. CBS/The Daily Progress.
Video of the incident can be found below:
My Comment:
What an absolute mess. This was fairly predictable, sooner or later something was going to happen like this. With Antifa shutting down yet another rally and picking fights with anyone to the right of them, it was only a matter of time before someone got pissed off at them enough to attack them. That, of course, doesn't justify an attack like this. Nothing could and I obviously condemn this attack.
I don't really have sympathy for anyone involved in this. The media are calling the original rally a "White Supremacist" rally. That seems to be fair as Richard Spencer and David Duke were involved. Both of them are accurately described as White Supremacists, though I don't think you can say that everyone involved in the original rally were. The cause they were rallying for was to prevent the removal of a confederate statue. Though I really don't approve of removing statues, it's fairly clear that whatever the cause, there was clearly some bad motives here. These guys are idiots and I don't support them in any way other than stating that they have a constitutional right to free speech that must be respected. Other than that, they are scum and I disavow them.
That being said, the events were peaceful until Antifa showed up. Last nights rally at UVA was completely peaceful despite using spooky imagery with torches. It was intimidating but the only thing hurt was feelings. Since there is no right to not have your feeling hurt, the rally was legal. No violence happened until far left groups like Antifa, Black Lives Matter and the Black Block showed up today. That, of course, doesn't justify ramming a car into a large group of people, but I am guessing if the counter-protest/riot hadn't happened, nobody would have died.
I am also not very impressed with the police response in Charlottesville. Though I don't want to bash a department that tragically just lost two of their members, I think that there definitely should have been a larger police presence. From what I have heard, police took a hands off approach to both sides. They basically let Antifa and the far right groups fight. If this attack was motivated by revenge for Antifa attacking people, the attack wouldn't have happened if police had broken up the counter-protest.
As for the attacker himself, as of this writing his motivation is unclear. The police think the attack was deliberate, but I caution that might not be the case. I think there is a very small possibility that this attack might have been an incident of self defense. I watched a stream that showed another vehicle being attacked by the left wingers and had to flee the area (at around 50 minutes into the video. The end of the video also shows the attack). If something like happened to the driver, than the context is completely different. Though I don't think that this attack was self defense, without knowing the motivation, we need to keep the possibility in mind.
There are other possibilities as well. We shouldn't just assume that this attacker was right wing. It's very possible that he was a left winger that thought he was running down right wing people, though that would make him a very stupid person indeed. And we can't rule out the possibility of this being Islamic terrorism, as unlikely as that is as well. Hell, at this point, we can't rule out the possibility that this was just someone that was pissed that he was late for work. The fact that the suspect was charged with 2nd degree murder is significant in that it shows that he was unlikely to have plotted the attack in advance.
I am sure that the truth will come out soon. If it does turn out to be a right wing attack, which is likely, though not proven yet, it will be an extremely rare example of right wing violence. Left wing violence in the United States is common and so is Islamic terrorism, but right wing violence has been relatively rare, outside of the Oklahoma City bombing and a few attacks on abortionists. Conservatives in America are generally peaceful and don't approve of violence the way the left does. It's telling that many on the right condemned this attack, including the president.
Still, I worry that extreme elements on the right might be falling into the cycle of revenge. While it is certainly true that the left has caused massive amounts of violence, including several mass shootings of police in places like Dallas and Baton Rouge, and the attack on Congress in Alexandria, the right has, so far, refrained from striking back. What little violence that has happened has been in self defense as Antifa and other groups have brawled with Trump supporters.
By not hitting back, we on the right had the moral high ground. I think we still do. Nobody on the right likes David Duke or Richard Spencer and the actual following for both is tiny. And I doubt they wanted this attack to happen. Even on the far right, both groups are condemned and many believe that both leaders are under the control of the left anyways.
The media is doing its best to paint this attack as the result of mainstream conservatism. That can't be further from the truth. Donald Trump condemned the entire event, rightly criticizing both sides of this event, while the media is insisting that he ignore the crimes of Antifa and other left wing groups and only condemn the actions of Spencer and his ilk. A quick perusal of twitter and other places where conservatives are common, are openly condemning this attack as well.
What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives.#Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/DB22fgnu6L— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017
The thing is that nobody on the right likes Spencer or Duke and their ilk. Hell, I am not sure that Spencer is even on the right since he supports things like universal healthcare and socialism. The only use that we on the right have for these idiots is as human shields. The extreme far right likes to fight with the mainstream far left and that protects those of us that range all the way from the center left to the non-racist "alt-light". I don't think anyone likes letting the scummy elements of the right tarnish the good name of conservatism, but as long as they are throwing down with the left, there is an element of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".We will continue to follow developments in Charlottesville, and will provide whatever assistance is needed. We are ready, willing and able. pic.twitter.com/mCTYBgUePi— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017
But with Antifa and Black Lives Matter still going strong, what other option is there? Someone has to protect the right to peaceable assemble and the only ones willing to stand up to them is the far right. The police often let the far left run amok and they also have institutional support. The media and many local and state governments protect groups like Antifa and Black Lives Matter despite the fact that they are domestic terrorist groups and very racist themselves. As long as nobody else is willing to do so, we end up relying on the scummy racist elements of the far right. It's an obviously poor solution because being associated with these idiots is bad press and sooner or later something terrible was going to happen.
What could change this? A complete crackdown on Antifa and the far left. These people need to go to prison and have their organizations broken up. The right wouldn't have to even entertain talking to people like Spencer if the cops would arrest the troublemakers on the left. They can not be allowed to attack everyone to the right of Karl Marx and they need to be stopped, once and for all. Once that happens Spencer and his ilk will fade into well deserved obscurity. If they don't, we can crack down on them as well if they get violent. And we should look into who is funding both groups and what they have to gain by giving them support...
We also need to put pressure on the media for covering people like David Duke and Richard Spencer. Neither would have any power at all if they weren't given it by the mainstream media. They are useful idiots and their actual support is almost non-existence. What little they have is directly due to the fact that their views are spread by the media to attack everyone on the right, regardless of their actual views. If the media hadn't publicized this event Antifa never would have shown up, no violence would have occurred and nobody would have died.
What I really fear though is that this is the start of a cycle of revenge attacks. Like I said before, the right has largely refrained from political violence, but if that changes we could fall into a cycle of tit for tat attacks with a lot of innocent people caught up between both sides. The situation mirrors Europe where people are starting to target Muslims with their own terrorist attacks in revenge for attacks by ISIS. That is something that cannot continue without eventually falling into civil war... Let's hope that calmer heads will prevail and the nasty elements of both the right and the left will be condemned to the trashbin of history.
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