The Lesson of Charlottesville: Today's News for August 14th

Saturday, there was a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, by alleged white supremacists, and then a counter-protest popped up. Final tally: one woman dead, and one so-called Nazi sympathizer in jail.

So what is the real story here?

New York Times:

Hurt and Angry, Charlottesville Tries to Regroup From Violence

Brittany Caine-Conley, a minister in training at Sojourners United Church of Christ, arrived in downtown Charlottesville on Saturday morning expecting that there might be violence. She did not expect things to get out of hand so quickly.

Why would anyone go somewhere they expect a riot? And why mention this woman who isn't mentioned again until the tenth paragraph of the story? This must be some kind of style thing for the New York Times, but it is rather annoying.

Continuing:

But what began as a rally of white nationalists in a city park soon spun out of control, resulting in melees in the streets and the death of a 32-year-old woman after a car rammed a group of counterprotesters. The police have charged a 20-year-old Ohio man described as a Nazi sympathizer, accusing him of intentionally driving his car into the crowd.

Notice how the suspect has already been categorized neatly for public consumption? His entire life has been summed up as "Nazi sympathizer"? That is all he was and all he is. He may someday become a "former Nazi sympathizer", if the New York Times has its way:

And at City Hall, a planned news conference by Jason Kessler, the white nationalist who organized Saturday’s rally, came to an abrupt end when a man wearing a plaid shirt punched him.

“Jason Kessler has been bringing hate to our town for months and has been endangering the lives of people of color and endangering other lives in my community,” the man, Jeff Winder, said in an interview later. “Free speech does not protect hate speech.”

Implicit in this so-called news report is an endorsement of performing violence against people who perform acts of "hate speech". The Times just gave a soap box to Winder who tried to use violence to silence a so-called hater. Winder has no concept of what free speech is, which protects all speech, not just the stuff he likes.

But back to the woman mentioned in the first paragraph:

But others, including Mr. Kessler and Ms. Caine-Conley, openly wondered if the violence could have been prevented.

“There was no police presence,” Ms. Caine-Conley said. “We were watching people punch each other; people were bleeding all the while police were inside of barricades at the park, watching. It was essentially just brawling on the street and community members trying to protect each other.”

Which is all pretty scary considering:

By the time both groups converged on the park, a line of camouflage-clad militia members toting assault rifles were standing outside the park, looking very much like an invading army. “They had better equipment than our State Police had,” [Gov. Terry] McAuliffe said.

As the white nationalists massed in the park, Ms. Caine-Conley and other members of the clergy locked arms in the street. Behind them were hundreds of protesters, including black-clad, helmet-wearing members of the far left known as antifa. 

There is a classic case of burying the lede. We had a radical Left group, Antifa, at this demonstration, and nobody mentions it? It is amazing that only one person died.

Speaking of the killer:

CNN:

Teacher: Charlottesville car crash suspect discussed radical views

The suspect being held in a Virginia jail in connection with a deadly crash near a scheduled rally of white nationalists holds extreme values, one of his former teachers told CNN on Sunday.

James Alex Fields Jr., 20, of Maumee, Ohio, is accused of running his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of people, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring at least 19 others.

His mother, Samantha Bloom, told the Toledo Blade that she didn't know her son was going to Virginia for a white nationalist rally. She thought it had something to do with President Donald Trump.

She told the Blade she didn't discuss politics with her son. She was surprised her son attended an event with white supremacists.

"He had an African-American friend," she told the Blade.

Because a person can't be racist if they have a black friend, right?

Moving right along...

But James Fields purportedly had some discussions with a teacher at the high school he attended in Union, Kentucky, where Fields and his mother lived until moving to Ohio.

Derek Weimer, who teaches social studies at at Randall K. Cooper High School, told CNN that Fields had "outlandish, very radical beliefs."

"It was quite clear he had some really extreme views and maybe a little bit of anger behind them," Weimer said. "Feeling, what's the word I'm looking for, oppressed or persecuted. He really bought into this white supremacist thing. He was very big into Nazism. He really had a fondness for Adolf Hitler."

Weimer said he had Fields in classes when the young man was a junior and a senior. They built a good rapport and could discuss topics without the student getting angry, Weimer said.

"I took every opportunity I could to really separate him from that garbage and [he and other teachers] weren't successful," Weimer said.

Notice how the headline is about the teacher, who neatly put the Nazi label on Fields, and yet the story is actually about what other people think of Fields.

Let's not forget the neighbor:

A former neighbor told CNN Fields lives with his mother and his car was parked in the driveway so much she and her parents thought Fields didn't work. Fields and his mother kept to themselves, said the woman, who gave only her first name of Emily.  

It sounds like the oblivious mother is the real story here. But "Nazi" rolls off the tongue much more easily than "neglected son".