Wild times in Charlottesville last night (see video below from Solidarity Charlottesville). As my friend Josh Israel of Think Progress describes:
Hundreds of angry residents of Charlottesville, Virginia, swarmed a city council meeting on Monday night to express their outrage at the city’s response to the violent white nationalist rallies a week ago.
After members of the the community unfurled a large banner with the words “blood on your hands” and shouted down the scheduled meeting — the first since white nationalists descended on the city — the city council agreed to drop its planned agenda and let the people speak in town hall-style. The council then began hearing from speaker after speaker, each telling horror stories of the violence, harassment, and hate they witnessed; excoriating the police force for failing to protect counter-protesters; and demanding that the council remove confederate statues immediately.
Also see 10 demands from Charlottesville!, which among other things demands: “Drop all charges against the 22 people arrested protesting the KKK on July 8″; “Apologize publicly for police negligence”; “Stop discriminatory stop-and-frisk,” “Remove all confederate monuments,” “Resign, because there is blood on your hands.” In the end, “The council ultimately voted unanimously in favor of expediting the removal and relocation of both the Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson monuments in the city, Charlottesville City Clerk Paige Rice said. The council also voted unanimously to drape the statues ‘in recognition of the city’s mourning.'”
LIVE @CvilleCityHall: discussing the white supremacist terrorist attacks invited by City Officials #Charlottesville https://t.co/gZXk8mPKYo
— Solidarity Cville (@SolidCville) August 21, 2017
#Charlottesville city council mtg tonight. This is Nikuyah Walker speaking truth to power. She is running for city council & is what we need pic.twitter.com/aqRb6Wneso
— Ken Horne (@HorneKen) August 22, 2017
MUST WATCH Charlottesville city council meeting: “It’s not just statues. It’s every day white suprmacy” https://t.co/LausfQid7Q pic.twitter.com/y7mEWy2um5
— People For Bernie (@People4Bernie) August 22, 2017
Signer just gaveled the meeting to an end. People are calling him a "coward." #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/KV0EH60fXH
— Chris Suarez (@Suarez_CM) August 22, 2017
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