Like a cockroach that just won’t die, Richard Spencer and his white nationalist tiki-torch-bearing friends once again descended on Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday, the bicentennial of the University of Virginia.
“It was a planned flash mob,” Spencer said Saturday night, according to the Washington Post. “It was a great success. We’ve been planning this for a long time.”
Spencer and his group arrived at Emancipation Park about 7:45 p.m. and departed 15 minutes later.
This is the third time Spencer and his fire-waving crew have come to the park. In August, Spencer led a coalition of white supremacists in a torchlight march across the University of Virginia campus that touched off a weekend of deadly clashes, killing one. And in May, there was another unannounced march at the park.
The supposed reason for the marches is the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which the city is currently in litigation to take down.
“Our identity matters,” Spencer said. “We are not going to stand by and allow people to tear down these symbols of our history and our people—and we’re going to do this again.”
Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer sent a tweet saying that the group was not welcome: “Another despicable visit by neo-Nazi cowards. You’re not welcome here! Go home! Meantime we’re looking at all our legal options. Stay tuned.”
Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam also released a statement:
There is no home, no place, and no safe harbor in the country I pledged to defend for the ugly hatred we saw in Charlottesville tonight. I don’t see two sides or very fine people gathered here and anyone unwilling to call out this evil fails our commonwealth. ... There can be no ambiguity from any elected official: white supremacists are not welcome, and they will not win.
The Post reports that Wes Gobar, the leader of UVA’s Black Student Alliance, said it was difficult balancing studies while “bracing for the next burst of hatred that might seize Charlottesville.”
Members of the BSA knelt in protest during the national anthem and the school’s “Good Old Song,” and three were arrested for blocking a screen showing the bicentennial events and unfurling a banner that read “200 years of white supremacy.”
Spencer and his crew promised to continue to keep coming to Charlottesville, where Spencer attended UVA, although Emancipation Park, where the statue of Lee stands, is not on the school’s campus.
“You’ll have to get used to us,” he said, “We’re going to come back again and again and again.”
They also spoke again about Russia being their “friend” and that “the South will rise again.”
In related news, a local NBC affiliate called Spencer’s march a gathering of “white activists,” which spurred the ire of Twitter, especially in light of the government’s statement that the FBI is on the lookout for “black identity extremists.”
The station fixed it:
Read more at the Washington Post.