We are now beginning to hear criticism bubble up on all sides of this event about the initial slow response by the police. When I got out of my car yesterday in Charlottesville about 10:30 in the morning you knew this was a bad scene and bad things were going to be happening because people were congregating at Lee Park and Emancipation Park wearing helmets, body armor, carrying big heavy sticks. Nobody was intent on peace here from either side. People were intent on causing havoc and causing damage. And even as wounded were being brought out of the park, police were sitting idly by. I was standing off a cordoned off area where the police had set up as a staging area, the state police, and they said you can come in here this is a safe area. But when the tear gas started to fly, thrown by protesters, the police themselves began to evacuate then. I asked the guy who was in charge, “Where you going?” He said, “We’re leaving. It’s too dangerous.” They had a chance to nip this thing in the bud and they chose not to.
“Chose not to,” Limbaugh repeated, questioning law enforcement’s apparent decision to not intervene.
Who wanted this (Charlottesville violence) to happen? I firmly believe there’s an answer to that, and I would hope that an investigation would uncover that information because this need not have happened. Somebody thought they would benefit from this, just like somebody thought they would benefit from Ferguson, just like somebody or some people thought they would benefit from Baltimore.
Somebody thought they would benefit from this. That’s why this happened. The cops let it happen. Somebody told them to stand down. I don’t believe that a police force in unison chickened out and ran for the tall grass once the protesters started throwing tear gas. There are just a lot of unanswered questions about this. The media wants it to be a certain way, and so that’s their narrative. The media narrative is that a bunch of skinhead, neo-Nazi, Klan members decided to march in Virginia in protest of removing Civil War statues such as Robert E. Lee.
And then some very peaceful, progressive, anti-bigot and anti-racist mainstream Americans showed up to protest the people who wanted to defend Civil War monuments and the deranged Klan and the white supremacists then started killing the peaceful, progressive, average, ordinary American citizens. That is the narrative that the media wants everybody to believe. In fact, there were two opposite, opposing, warring factions: Those made up of the Nazis and skinheads and the white supremacists and the Antifa.
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George Soros: Removing Confederate symbols is ‘1st step’
Meanwhile, a nationwide effort is underway to remove Confederate statues and symbols from government grounds across America. The effort is supported by leftist billionaire and Open Society Foundation founder George Soros.
In August 2015, Soros tweeted: “Removing racist symbols like the Confederate flag is a first step in dismantling racist systems.”
It’s unclear whether Soros-backed agitators played a role in the Charlottesville violence Saturday. However, Soros has a long history of supporting leftist agitators. Breitbart reported a hacked memo revealed Soros’ Open Society contributed $650,000 to assist the Black Lives Matter movement during the 2015 Baltimore unrest following the death of Freddie Gray. The Washington Times reported that Black Lives Matter received more than $33 million in grants from Soros’ Open Society Foundations and Center for American Progress. Soros’ Open Society also provided funds to the Occupy Wall Street movement and illegal-alien “DREAMers.”
One group that has advocated for removing Confederate symbols across America is Color of Change, which was co-founded by Obama’s former green-jobs czar, Van Jones, and Huffington Post contributor James Rucker. The group has launched a new petition titled, “Take Em ALL Down: Remove Every Confederate Symbol in America.”
Color of Change and its parent organization, Citizen Engagement Laboratory, has received $550,000 from Soros’ Open Society Foundation since 2009, according to Activist Facts.
We cannot allow these white supremacist terrorists to intimidate us from confronting and working to dismantle systemic white supremacy. Confederate statues are more than a mere symbol of a heritage but instead, they are an assertion of the continued imposition of white supremacy and its current political power. Terrorists in Charlottesville understood this and were willing to kill in the name of this, we must be determined to persist in the face of this white supremacist terror.
We must work to end the influence of today’s White supremacists, removing all Confederate statues would be one step among many in sending the message that we are no longer honoring white supremacy at a societal level. We’ve already seen progress in Tampa and New Orleans, where Confederate symbols are being removed by Black-led organizing in the face of sustained white supremacist opposition. Join with me today and pledge to work to remove all Confederate statues in America.
Cities, states take action on Confederate symbols
Now several states are planning to remove the public monuments.
In Nashville Monday, protesters called for removal of a bust of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest at the state capitol, the Tennessean reported.
In Jacksonville, Florida, the president of the city council, Anna Lopez Brosche, is calling on the city to “develop an appropriate plan of action” to relocate all Confederate symbols to museums.
In Gainesville, Florida, crews removed a Confederate memorial Monday that had been dedicated to men in the area who served in the Civil War and lost their lives fighting.
Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch is targeting a statue of former Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney, who ruled against Dred Scott in 1857. The statue is located in front of the statehouse. Busch told the Baltimore Sun Monday that “it’s the appropriate time to remove it.” On Monday, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh pledged to remove Confederate monuments.
And Lexington, Kentucky, Mayor Jim Gray said he will make an announcement next week concerning an effort there to remove two statues of Confederate figures – one of Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan and another of Confederate Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge, who was also the 14th vice president of the United States – from the grounds of a former courthouse.
On Sunday evening, protesters in Atlanta, Georgia, spray-painted a statue of a Confederate soldier. And in Durham, North Carolina, protesters toppled a statue of a Confederate soldier outside the old county courthouse.
Now, white nationalists have announced their plans to hold more protests in other states in response to the nationwide effort to remove Confederate symbols.
Richard Spencer is seeking permission to speak at the University of Florida, Bloomberg reported. White nationalist Preston Wiginton has announced that he will hold a “White Lives Matter” rally at Texas A&M University in September.