This is May 2017 right?

-

-

Torch-wielding group protests Confederate statue removal

• By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — May 14, 2017, 9:04 PM ET

-

-

-

A group that included a well-known white nationalist carried torches and chanted "you will not replace us" at a weekend protest in Virginia over plans to remove a monument of a Confederate general.

-

The protesters on Saturday evening called on officials to halt the removal of a Gen. Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville and were swiftly condemned by the city's mayor, who said the event appeared to hearken "back to the days of the KKK," the Daily Progress newspaper reported ( http://bit.ly/2qEzja6 ).

-

Among those at the protest were Richard Spencer, a while nationalist who popularized the phrase "alt-right" and is a leading figure in a fringe movement that has been described as a mix of racism, white nationalism and populism.

-

"We will not be replaced from this park," Spencer told the crowd at a different rally held hours earlier in Charlottesville on Saturday. "We will not be replaced from this world. Whites have a future. We have a future of power, of beauty, of expression," he said.

-

Spencer, an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, hosted a postelection conference in the nation's capital last November that ended with audience members mimicking Nazi salutes after Spencer shouted, "Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory!" Spencer also has advocated for an "ethno-state" that would be a "safe space" for white people

Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer said in a statement that Saturday's protest was either "profoundly ignorant" or meant to instill fear in minorities "in a way that hearkens back to the days of the KKK."

-

"I want everyone to know this: We reject this intimidation," Signer said in a statement. "We are a welcoming city, but such intolerance is not welcome here."

-

Erich Reimer, chairman of the Charlottesville Republican Party, said in a statement that the "intolerance and hatred" that the protesters are seeking to promote is "utterly disgusting and disturbing beyond words," The Daily Progress reported.

-

The debate over Confederate symbols has swept through cities across the South since the 2015 massacre of nine black parishioners at a South Carolina church. The gunman was a self-avowed white supremacist.

-

In Virginia, Republican Corey Stewart's vocal support for the Lee statue also has pushed the issue into the state's high-profile race for governor. Stewart has pledged that no Confederate monuments would be removed if he is elected.

-

In New Orleans, workers on Thursday removed a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, the second of four monuments to Confederate era figures the city has voted to remove. Late last month, the city removed a 35-foot tall granite obelisk tribute to whites who battled a biracial Reconstruction government installed in New Orleans after the Civil War.

-

The Charlottesville City Council voted last month to sell the Lee statue, but a judge has agreed to a temporary injunction that blocks Charlottesville from moving the statue for six months, The Daily Progress reported. The city also plans to rename Lee Park and another park named after another famed Confederate, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson.

Yipes.



Um... are they not concerned this has the appearance of a KK ralley - or was that intentional?

Sometimes, there ain't too much of a difference between what is expressed via Confederate symbols
and Old Glory; the same for men dressed in white hooded robes and blue police uniforms.

Pokeno was there.

Thanks for the laugh.

DiminutiveRocker said:

Yipes.



Um... are they not concerned this has the appearance of a KK ralley - or was that intentional?

-

Considering the organizers behind it, I would dare say that it was intentional without any concerns of it appearing like a KKK rally.

Musicslave said:

Tank u.

Watch this: these mooks are so backwards they forgot about electric lights.

Historically treasonous men being celebrated, honored and defended for their treasonous acts of war against a country that supposed to take pride in the very concept of Unity. So much so, they included the word United in it's name. Seems a little anti-American to me. The very antithesis of what America is supposed to stand for.

-

Should the "Sons of Confederate Veterans" be ashamed for what their ancestors stood and died for or should those Confederate soldiers be lauded as heroes for their defiant act of treason?

[Edited 5/15/17 11:01am]

2freaky4church1 said:

Watch this: these mooks are so backwards they forgot about electric lights.

-

What do I get?

DiminutiveRocker said:

Yipes.



Um... are they not concerned this has the appearance of a KK ralley - or was that intentional?

Very much intentional, I think. The torches are all part of the spectacle of it - which helps make it a clickable news story and gets us all talking about it. I do wonder the extent to which that spectacle enables a group like this to 'punch above their weight' in terms of media attention - though, doubtless, they've been emboldened by the rhetoric that was whipped up during the election, and all the focus on the 'alt-right' in recent times. That's not to encourage complacency, of course, as the Nazi chants and paranoiac propaganda about being "replaced" seem likely to foment the kind of hostility that often has very, very nasty consequences at the street level.

LOL @ these clowns, still thinking it's the "good ol' days". Is this supposed to intimidate black folks?

deebee said:

DiminutiveRocker said:

Yipes.



Um... are they not concerned this has the appearance of a KK ralley - or was that intentional?

Very much intentional, I think. The torches are all part of the spectacle of it - which helps make it a clickable news story and gets us all talking about it. I do wonder the extent to which that spectacle enables a group like this to 'punch above their weight' in terms of media attention - though, doubtless, they've been emboldened by the rhetoric that was whipped up during the election, and all the focus on the 'alt-right' in recent times. That's not to encourage complacency, of course, as the Nazi chants and paranoiac propaganda about being "replaced" seem likely to foment the kind of hostility that often has very, very nasty consequences at the street level.

Ugh... one step forward, 9 steps back.

It would be so sweet if these chromosome-challenged racists were met by a group of armed black folks, just to let them know the good ol' days are long gone.

uPtoWnNY said:

It would be so sweet if these chromosome-challenged racists were met by a group of armed black folks, just to let them know the good ol' days are long gone.

-

-

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/27/us/african-american-gun-club-trump/

-

-

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/03/13/in-2017-women-and-minorities-are-buying-guns-heres-why.html

uPtoWnNY said:

The contractors taking down the statues in Nola are doing it at random times wearing bulletproof vests with armed guards. Dixie comin down. Time to change that landscape.

purplepoppy said:

The contractors taking down the statues in Nola are doing it at random times wearing bulletproof vests with armed guards.

Good idea.

purplepoppy said:

I do not agree that the monuments should be removed. It is messed up thing to do and dangerous trend to start. I have said it before: but watch out what you wish for as at some point the same kind of thing might happen to you.

Dang It! EDIT!

That being said, there is something very disturbing with how they choose to protest.

[Edited 5/19/17 13:05pm]

2freaky4church1 said:

Watch this: these mooks are so backwards they forgot about electric lights.

I thought you said the right to protest was scared.

2elijah said:

purplepoppy said:

The contractors taking down the statues in Nola are doing it at random times wearing bulletproof vests with armed guards. Dixie comin down. Time to change that landscape.

I heard they're taking down the Robert E. Lee one today. Good, take that crap down. http://www.cnn.com/2017/0...monuments/ Final Confederate statue coming down in New Orleans By Darran Simon, CNN Updated 2:58 PM EDT, Fri May 19, 2017 "Three other monuments have come down in the past month in the city The removals are part of a national debate over Confederate symbols (CNN) The city of New Orleans is set to remove its fourth and final Confederate-era monument. Unlike the first three statues, the monument to Gen. Robert E. Lee is coming down during the day. Streets near the city's Lee Circle -- where the monument has stood for 133 years -- were blocked off by early Friday in preparation for the dismantling that's scheduled to begin sometime before 5 p.m. CT."

Lee Circle is a big deal - city hub. New Orleans is 56% African American. One of the greatest cities in the world. Never was a huge fan of Mitch Landrieu, mayor, but thank goodness he is on the right side of history by supporting this and refusing blowback.

purplepoppy said:

2elijah said:

purplepoppy said: I heard they're taking down the Robert E. Lee one today. Good, take that crap down. http://www.cnn.com/2017/0...monuments/ Final Confederate statue coming down in New Orleans By Darran Simon, CNN Updated 2:58 PM EDT, Fri May 19, 2017 "Three other monuments have come down in the past month in the city The removals are part of a national debate over Confederate symbols (CNN) The city of New Orleans is set to remove its fourth and final Confederate-era monument. Unlike the first three statues, the monument to Gen. Robert E. Lee is coming down during the day. Streets near the city's Lee Circle -- where the monument has stood for 133 years -- were blocked off by early Friday in preparation for the dismantling that's scheduled to begin sometime before 5 p.m. CT."

Lee Circle is a big deal - city hub. New Orleans is 56% African American. One of the greatest cities in the world. Never was a huge fan of Mitch Landrieu, mayor, but thank goodness he is on the right side of history by supporting this and refusing blowback.

Good on him.

Did y'all see that state Rep Karl Oliver, Republican Mississippi, had to be FORCED to apologize for calling for the LYNCHING of the New Orleans leaders who voted to take down the 4 Civil War statues? He also called the NOLA City Council Nazis and said the destruction of the monuments is "both heinous and horrific".

This is what we are dealing with when we give all the power "back to the states". That is code baby.

wow! I would say he needs to step down over that remark. Totally uncalled for and so far over the line as to be damn near criminal.

OnlyNDaUsa said:

Fox was awful quiet about these white jihad torchers.

jjhunsecker said:

OnlyNDaUsa said:

I do not agree that the monuments should be removed. It is messed up thing to do and dangerous trend to start. I have said it before: but watch out what you wish for as at some point the same kind of thing might happen to you.

Dang It! EDIT!

That being said, there is something very disturbing with how they choose to protest.

[Edited 5/19/17 13:05pm]

Should Nazi era artifacts be left up in Berlin or Nuremberg?

that is not a legitimate comparison