A little over a week ago, it was announced that D.C.’s WMATA was flirting with the idea of providing separate trains to transport sentient tubs of lard to downtown D.C. where they’d protest near the White House on behalf of “white civil rights.”
That idea was supposed to be nixed amidst protests, including from the Metro’s largest union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which unequivocally said that it was not about to transport white supremacists.
“More than 80% of Local 689’s membership is people of color, the very people that the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist groups have killed, harassed and violated. The union has declared that it will not play a role in their special accommodation,” Union President Jackie Jeter said in a statement.
However, as it turns out, while Metro did not provide special trains for white supremacists to go to their ridiculous, redundant, racist rally, D.C. police apparently escorted them to special KKKars.
According to the Washington Post, some D.C. officials—including council members Robert C. White Jr. and Charles Allen, and Local 689 are now furious that the D.C. Metro allowed trains to be used to give “special treatment.”
“Giving white supremicists [sic] & hate groups a private Metro railcar is so unbelievably wrong & disgraceful,” Allen tweeted on Sunday.
The Post notes Kessler and his ragtag group of raging racists arrived at Vienna Metro Station and were given police escort to board the rear car of a train heading toward Foggy Bottom.
While the white supremacists were being escorted to the train, other metro-users were temporarily blocked from entering the station.
That being said, the car was not completely private if you wanted to split hairs. Some journalists managed to get on board the same car as the group, however, the station and platform were not reopened until the train left the station.
Several police officers were also present within each car as the Orange-line train took its usual route. As the train made its stop, reporters in the car with Kessler’s group said they saw officers telling people to board another car. At the stops, transit officers apparently encouraged waiting passengers to move toward the front of the train and board cars there.
Once the train arrived at Foggy Bottom, all other passengers were asked to exit first, before Kessler and his unseasoned goons were escorted off the train. Counter-protesters who were at the station were kept some 60 feet away.
Metro spokesperson Sherry Ly apparently didn’t want no problems and claimed that the decisions on escorting the group were made by D.C. police.
“They were escorted by police onto the rear of the train and police rode in that rail car and others to protect the safety of everyone on board the train,” Ly said. “Vienna station remained opened to the public at all times. Any changes to traffic patterns were directed by police for crowd management.”
Nonetheless, several officials, including Union president Jeter, felt the move and how the rally was handled was dishonest.
“Today, the public was lied to by WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld the same way he has been lying to this union for the last two years,” Jeter, who said she is calling for Wiedefeld’s resignation, said in a statement. “The special accommodation for a hate rally in Washington, D.C. was dishonest, unprecedented, and not a reflection of the principles of ATU Local 689 or ‘DC Values.’”