Tennessee cities brace for protests over refugee resettlement

Local residents write on boards installed to protect a business during tomorrow's White Lives Matter rally in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, U.S. October 27, 2017. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston

By Chris Kenning

(Reuters) – White nationalists and neo-Nazis are expected to converge on the small Tennessee cities of Shelbyville and Murfreesboro on Saturday to protest refugee resettlement in the state, seven months after it sued the U.S. government over the issue.

The “White Lives Matter” rally, by some of the groups involved in a Virginia march in August that turned violent, is also expected to draw hundreds of counter-demonstrators and a heavy local police presence.

The organizers said they chose middle Tennessee partly in hopes of avoiding clashes, but said protesters could bring shields, goggles and helmets for protection.

The rally, named in response to the Black Lives Matter movement protesting police treatment of minorities, is organized by Nationalist Front. Its members include League of the South, Traditionalist Worker’s Party, National Socialist Movement and Vanguard America, considered neo-Nazi or neo-Confederate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups.

“We don’t want the federal government to keep dumping all these refugees into middle Tennessee,” said Brad Griffin, a League of the South member, who has written of his desire to create a white “ethnostate.”

He cited a fatal church shooting last month near Nashville which has led to the arrest of a man from Sudan.

Local officials and faith leaders have denounced the gathering scheduled for 10 a.m. in central Shelbyville and 1:30 p.m. in Murfreesboro at the county courthouse. The cities are just southeast of Nashville, whose metropolitan area has become home to refugees from Somalia, Iraq and elsewhere under Tennessee’s resettlement program.

Over the last 15 years, about 18,000 refugees have been resettled in Tennessee, less than 1 percent of the state’s population, the Tennessean reported.

“When they say refugees, what they really mean is Muslims,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, noting that a Murfreesboro mosque has been a source of controversy and vandalism for years.

“Tennessee is one of the states that has seen a rise in anti-Muslim bigotry in recent years, particularly since the election.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland condemned “the ideology of white nationalists and white supremacists” behind the rally.

Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro canceled events and some businesses boarded their windows.

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam did not plan to declare a state of emergency or deploy the National Guard but will closely monitor the situation, spokeswoman Jennifer Donnals said in an email on Thursday.

In March Tennessee sued the federal government over refugee resettlement in the state, saying it was unduly forced to pay for it. Tennessee was the first state to bring such a case on the basis of the 10th Amendment, which limits U.S. government powers to those provided by the Constitution, though other states have done so on different legal grounds.

Saturday’s rally comes more than a week after hundreds protested a speech by white nationalist Richard Spencer at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where the governor had declared a preemptive state of emergency.

In August, the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia led to clashes that left one woman dead when she was run down by a car.

Despite increased scrutiny of white supremacist groups, “it hasn’t kept them from taking to the streets,” said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Chris Irwin, a Knoxville attorney, said he would stand up to the protesters at the rally. “They’re not welcome anywhere they go.”

(Reporting by Chris Kenning; Editing by Richard Chang)

White House says Trump condemns Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis

People gather for a vigil in response to the death of a counter-demonstrator at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, outside the White House in Washington,

By Ian Simpson

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s remarks condemning violence at a white nationalist rally were meant to include the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi groups, the White House said on Sunday, a day after he was criticized across the political spectrum for not explicitly denouncing white supremacists.

U.S. authorities opened an investigation into the deadly violence in Virginia, which put renewed pressure on the Trump administration to take an unequivocal stand against right-wing extremists occupying a loyal segment of the Republican president’s political base.

A 32-year-old woman was killed and 19 people were injured, five critically, on Saturday when a man plowed a car into a crowd of people protesting the white nationalist rally in the Southern college town of Charlottesville. Another 15 people were injured in bloody street brawls between white nationalists and counter-demonstrators who fought each other with fists, rocks and pepper spray.

Two Virginia state police officers died in the crash of their helicopter after assisting in efforts to quell the unrest, which Mayor Mike Signer said was met by the presence of nearly 1,000 law enforcement officers.

Former U.S. Army enlistee James Alex Fields Jr., 20, a white Ohio man described by a former high school teacher as having been “infatuated” with Nazi ideology as a teenager, was due to be appear in court on murder and other charges stemming from the deadly car crash.

The federal “hate crime” investigation of the incident “is not limited to the driver,” a U.S. Justice Department official told Reuters. “We will investigate whether others may have been involved in planning the attack.”

Democrats and Republicans criticized Trump for waiting too long to address the violence – his first major crisis on the domestic front that he has faced as president – and for failing when he did speak out to explicitly condemn white-supremacist marchers who ignited the melee.

Trump on Saturday initially denounced what he called “this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides.”

On Sunday, however, the White House added: “The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred, and of course that includes white supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi, and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.”

The statement was emailed to reporters covering Trump at his golf resort in New Jersey and attributed to an unidentified “White House spokesperson.”

 

SOLIDARITY WITH CHARLOTTESVILLE

Memorial vigils and other events showing solidarity with Charlottesville’s victims were planned across the country on Sunday to “honor all those under attack by congregating against hate,” a loose coalition of civil society groups said in postings on social media.

Virginia police have not yet provided a motive for the man accused of ramming his car into the crowd. But U.S. prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have opened a civil rights investigation, FBI and Justice Department officials said.

Derek Weimer, a history teacher at Fields’ high school, told Cincinnati television station WCPO-TV that he remembered Fields harboring “some very radical views on race” as a student and was “very infatuated with the Nazis, with Adolf Hitler.”

“I developed a good rapport with him and I used that rapport to constantly try to steer him away from those beliefs,” Weimer recounted, adding that he recalled Fields being “gung-ho” about joining the Army when he graduated.

The Army confirmed that Fields reported for basic military training in August 2015 but was “released from active duty due to a failure to meet training standards in December of 2015.” The Army statement did not explain in what way he failed to measure up.

Fields is being held on suspicion of second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and a single count of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, authorities said.

Two people stop to comfort Joseph Culver (C) of Charlottesville as he kneels at a late night vigil to pay his respect for a friend injured in a car attack on counter protesters after the "Unite the Right" rally organized by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 12, 2017. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

Two people stop to comfort Joseph Culver (C) of Charlottesville as he kneels at a late night vigil to pay his respect for a friend injured in a car attack on counter protesters after the “Unite the Right” rally organized by white nationalists in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S., August 12, 2017. REUTERS/Jim Bourg

REPUBLICAN SENATORS CRITICIZE RESPONSE

On Sunday before the White House statement, U.S. Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado, who chairs the Republican Party’s Senate election effort, urged the president to condemn “white supremacists” and to use that term. He was one of several Republican senators who squarely criticized Trump on Twitter on Saturday.

“Calling out people for their acts of evil – let’s do it today – white nationalist, white supremacist,” Gardner said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program on Sunday. “We will not stand for their hate.”

Sunday’s White House statement elaborating on Trump’s initial comment on the Charlottesville clashes was followed hours later by even tougher rhetoric against white nationalists from Vice President Mike Pence, on a visit to Colombia.

“We have no tolerance for hate and violence from white supremacists, neo Nazis or the KKK,” Pence said. “These dangerous fringe groups have no place in American public life and in the American debate, and we condemn them in the strongest possible terms.”

Mayor Signer, a Democrat, blamed Trump for helping foment an atmosphere conducive to violence, starting with rhetoric as a candidate for president in 2016.

“Look at the campaign he ran, Signer said on CNN’s State of the Nation.” “There are two words that need to be said over and over again – domestic terrorism and white supremacy. That is exactly what we saw on display this weekend.”

Jason Kessler, an organizer of Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally, which was staged to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate army commander General Robert E. Lee from a park, said supporters of the event would not back down. The rally stemmed from a long debate over various public memorials and symbols honoring the pro-slavery Confederacy of the U.S. Civil War, considered an affront by African-Americans.

Kessler attempted to hold a press conference outside city hall in Charlottesville on Sunday but was quickly shouted down by counter-protesters.

 

(Additional reporting by Lucia Mutikani and Mike Stone in Washington, James Oliphant in New Jersey, Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and Julia Cobb in Bogota; Writing by Grant McCool and Steve Gorman; Editing by Andrew Hay and Mary Milliken)

 

Montana lawmakers denounce plans for neo-Nazi rally

FILE PHOTO: U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke (R-MT) arrives for a meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, U.S.

By Eric M. Johnson and Keith Coffman

(Reuters) – Top Montana Democratic and Republican lawmakers on Tuesday warned neo-Nazis they would find “no safe haven” for a rally that could include guns planned for next month in a mountain town where white nationalists have threatened Jewish residents.

The lawmakers include both Democrats and U.S. Representative Ryan Zinke, recently picked by Republican President-elect Donald Trump to be interior secretary.

“We say to those few who seek to publicize anti-Semitic views that they shall find no safe haven here,” Zinke wrote in an open letter also signed by Democratic Montana Governor Steve Bullock, U.S. senators Republican Steve Daines and Democrat Jon Tester, and Republican Attorney General Tim Fox.

Neo-Nazis plan to march in January in the mountain ski town of Whitefish in Montana’s remote and rugged northwestern reaches. The march is to support the mother of white nationalist leader Richard Spencer. Sherry Spencer is facing pressure from community members to sell a building she owns in Whitefish because of its ties to her son and disavow her son’s beliefs.

Community members held a vigil and a protest earlier this month in front of the building.

As pressure mounted against the building, the neo-Nazi and white supremacist website “Daily Stormer” urged its readers in an article to “take action” against Jews in the Whitefish area.

In its article, the “Daily Stormer” called for an “old fashioned Troll Storm” against community members and published their names and phone numbers along with yellow Jewish stars superimposed over their photographs. It also said that because of gun laws in Montana, “we can easily march through the center of the town carrying high-powered rifles.”

The website contains many anti-Semitic descriptions and images of Jews, but said it does not endorse violence.

Spencer is the president of the National Policy Institute, a think tank within the alt-right movement, which includes neo-Nazis and white supremacists. In a video posted online by the Atlantic Monthly magazine, some institute members could be seen hailing Trump’s election victory with Nazi-era salutes after Spencer addressed the group at its conference last month in Washington, D.C.

Spencer has said on Twitter he might pursue Zinke’s House of Representatives seat if Zinke is confirmed as Trump’s interior secretary.

Whitefish Police Chief Bill Dial told Reuters in a phone interview last week that his department had assigned extra patrols to the homes and businesses of the residents identified in the article. However, Dial said there had been no reports of harassment or intimidation of the Jewish community that rose to the level of a crime.

Dial also said Federal Bureau of Investigation officials told him they interviewed Spencer and that he denounced the “Daily Stormer” postings.

In a statement to Reuters, Spencer’s father said he and his wife “love our son, but do not agree with his polemics, societal desires or his extreme political leanings.”

(Reporting by Keith Coffman in Denver and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Writing and additional reporting by Eric M. Johnson from Seattle; Editing by Ben Klayman and Lisa Shumaker)

2012 Shows Surge In Anti-Semitism

Israeli researchers have released a report showing a significant increase in anti-Semitic attacks in 2012. The report was released on the eve of Israel’s memorial day for the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis.

The report from Tel Aviv University says that anti-Semitic violence increase 30 percent in 2012. The report showed 686 attacks in 34 countries. 273 of the attacks, 40 percent, involved violence against people. Continue reading