A lawsuit filed Thursday morning seeks to hold white supremacist
Richard Spencer and the organizers of the Aug. 12 Unite the Right rally in
Charlottesville, VA accountable for the harms and injuries they caused,
reported Slate. The suit, filed by 11
plaintiffs harmed that day, was filed in federal court in the Western District
of Virginia. Plaintiffs include clergy leaders, peaceful protesters, and
University of Virginia students. One
suffered a stroke. Two were struck in a car attack. Among the named
defendants are Spencer, rally organizer Jason Kessler, Vice interviewee Christopher Cantwell, Daily
Stormer founder Andrew Anglin, and James Alex Fields, the driver of the
car that killed Heyer.
The suit was brought by a pair of seasoned litigators: Roberta
Kaplan, who successfully represented Edie Windsor in the 2013 case
challenging the Defense of Marriage Act, and Karen Dunn, a former federal
prosecutor in Virginia. (Disclosure: Kaplan is a friend.) It was funded by a
new nonprofit, Integrity First for America, dedicated to defending democratic
norms and ensuring equal rights for every American. “The whole point of this
lawsuit is to make it clear that this kind of conduct—inciting and then
engaging in violence based on racism, sexism, and anti-Semitism—has no place in
our country,” Kaplan told me via email. “We are a nation of laws, dedicated to
the principle that all people are created equal. On behalf of our very brave
clients, we are using those laws to prevent these defendants and others like
them from being able to repeat what happened in Charlottesville ever again.”
The 96-page filing, which accuses the white supremacists of
violating the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 and other statutes, paints a picture of
the events in Charlottesville that bears no resemblance to the president’s
“good people on both sides” narrative. It is shot through with tweets, photos,
and messages that capture the gleeful planning and howling execution of an
event that was intended to be the largest and most terrifying white supremacist
event in decades.
To read more CLICK HERE
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment