‘How dare you:’ Tensions boil during Heaphy presentation

Emotions ran high at the December 4 City Council meeting that began at 7pm when Councilor Kristin Szakos placed two paper plates piled with homemade cookies at the podium and ended at midnight. Mayor Mike Signer opened the meeting, during which former federal prosecutor Tim Heaphy presented his $350,000 independent review of the summer’s white […]

Kessler calls for Unite the Right redo

It’s a day those living in Charlottesville would rather not relive. That it left three people dead and countless injured, or that it was shut down before it was scheduled to begin last August 12 has not stopped Jason Kessler from planning a second Charlottesville rally—on the one-year anniversary of Unite the Right. While many […]

Downtown visitors get a parking break

Some business owners say the Downtown Mall hasn’t been quite the same since shield-wielding white supremacists and neo-Nazis invaded it over the summer, followed immediately by the onset of a pilot parking meter program that required drivers to pay to park for what was once a free space. So what better way to welcome back […]

Not ‘finger pointing’: State task force weighs in on August 12

  Almost immediately after the violent clashes in Charlottesville August 12, Governor Terry McAuliffe established a task force to review the events of that weekend, and consultants presented a preliminary report November 15. The top two takeaways: This is a new era of protests—and a stronger permit process for those seeking to use public facilities […]

Militia madness: City files suit against August 12 participants

  Exactly two months after the summer’s Unite the Right white nationalist rally that left three dead and many injured, a legal group has filed an unprecedented complaint on behalf of Charlottesville, local businesses and neighborhood associations that could prohibit “unlawful paramilitary activity” in the city. Lawyers with the University of Georgetown Law School’s Institute […]

City responds to weekend tiki torch rally

“The so called ‘alt-right’ believes intimidation and intolerance will stop us from our work,” says Mayor Mike Signer in an October 8 press release after about 40 white supremacists held another torch-lit rally in Emancipation Park. “They could not be more wrong. We must marshal all our resources, legal and otherwise, to protect our public […]

Alleged Deandre Harris attacker denied bond

The Georgia man charged with kicking a counterprotester who was on the ground in the Market Street Parking Garage August 12 was denied bond this morning in Charlottesville General District Court. Alex Michael Ramos, 33, appeared before Judge Bob Downer seeking bond for his release from Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail. Ramos surrendered August 28 to […]

Candid Cantwell: An afternoon with the ‘Crying Nazi’

In a minuscule, stagnant holding room just feet away from a barely bigger solitary confinement cell where he’s been housed since he turned himself in to police August 23, “Crying Nazi” Christopher Cantwell, a self-proclaimed racist and alt-right radio shock jock, says he wishes he never came to Charlottesville. Perhaps most notable for his appearance […]