Deadly “Unite the Right” Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia Was Carefully Planned, Federal Civil Trial Plaintiffs Say

Four years after the deadly white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a federal civil trial charges the organizers with an unlawful conspiracy to commit violent acts. Defendants include Jason Kessler, the main organizer, and Richard Spencer, a white nationalist who spoke at the event. Neo-Nazi James Alex Fields, who slammed his car into a crowd of antiracist counterprotesters during the rally and killed activist Heather Heyer, has already been sentenced to life in prison. Plaintiffs in the case cite the careful advance planning done in online chatrooms to wreak irreparable harm.

Here is Elizabeth Sines, one of the plaintiffs in the case, speaking about what she witnessed:

The memories from those two days will undeniably haunt me for the rest of my life. I will never forget what it was like to watch Nazis march on a campus that I called home. I will never forget watching them attack my fellow students, or the feeling of running for my life through streets I had walked with friends and family countless times before. I don’t think anything can ever really prepare you to witness something so horrific, watching your home be overrun by people who wish to cause as much harm and wreak as much havoc as possible.

Obviously, what happened during those days was a succession of crimes, not civil matters. Perhaps the reason it’s being prosecuted as such is for brevity, or to eliminate the burden of proof that is “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

In any case, it’s clear that domestic terrorism has become a part of our everyday lives.