HATE RALLIES CANCELLED ACROSS U.S. FOLLOWING MASSIVE BOSTON PROTEST
By Miriam Raftery
Photo of Boston Free Speech counter-protest rally by Ken Breeman (cc)
August 23, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) - Across the U.S., 67 rallies in 23 states organized by hate groups including Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members have been cancelled, Newsweek reports. The groups say that they will instead hold a virtual event online on September 9th, but will not be wielding torches and marching through America’s streets chanting anti-Jewish, anti-black and anti-immigrant messages as they did in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Violence in Charlottesville included a car driven into a crowd by a Nazi sympathizer who killed a woman and injured 19 others. The driver has been charged with murder.
The Hill reports that an arrest warrant has been issued for Richard Cantwell from the Charlottesville march, who was seen on Vice TV threatening that many others would die.
Other media have aired disturbing video, including Univision, which sent a black woman reporter, Ilia Calderon onto a KKK Imperial Wizard’s property for an interview. On camera, he called her a “mongrel” and made clear he was touting not merely white pride, but terrorizing non-whites. He threatened the reporter to “burn you out,” referring to African-Americans. The man claimed he was not racist and touted a twisted Biblical interpretation for his advocacy of violence based on race.
After Charlottesville and a barrage of negative publicity, the hate groups next tried to muster up a rally in Boston, but less than 200 showed up, according to national media accounts. The white supremacists were surrounded by as many as 40,000 mostly peaceful protesters, including Black Lives Matter members who kindly escorted some white supremacists through the crowd and protected them.
Apologists for white supremacists including President Donald Trump have tried to characterize “both sides” as equally at fault. There were isolated instances of pushing and pepper spraying on both sides and some agitators amid the protesters.
But only the white supremacists have openly called for the deportation and death, even genocide, of mass numbers of Americans based solely on race or religion.
Other groups came to stand up for their rights and freedoms, and to speak out against hate and oppression.
There have been other ramifications for participants in the Charlottesville rally. Some lost jobs after their employers saw photos on social media. The largest white supremacist recruiting website, Stormtrooper, was booted off line by servers and search engines such as Go Daddy and Facebook. Facebook, YouTube, and other social media giants have shut down some racist hate groups on social media, cutting off key fundraising opportunities.
Meanwhile in cities across America, thousands and thousands have gathered to hold candlelight vigils and peace rallies in the wake of the ugliness at Charlottesville, including some 3,000 people who gathered in San Diego to take a stand against hate.
Martin Luther King Jr. one observed, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
This week, light and love shined brightly, overpowering darkness and hate.