Charlottesville gathers to talk about path forward, but many still want answers

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Two weeks after white supremacists and violence turned this city into a new flash point of racial strife in America, hundreds of residents still anguished and angry came together Sunday for what was billed as the beginning of a road to recovery.

But the gathering delivered few answers to a community demanding them, and it appeared healing is still a ways off.
Jack Ridley Jr., 66, a lifelong resident and retired city employee, echoed many at the meeting, saying that city leaders need to get beyond finger-pointing and begin to provide clarity about what went wrong and how it can be fixed.
“What happened two weeks ago came from the outside and it has put a mark on the city that’s never been there before,” he said.
Emotions were sometimes raw as residents continued to grapple with the aftermath of the deadly demonstration Aug. 12 by white supremacists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members that claimed the life of Charlottesville resident Heather Heyer.Heyer, 32, a paralegal, had joined the counterprotest that day and was killed when a car allegedly driven by a man with neo-Nazi ties barreled into a crowd of pedestrians. Two state troopers monitoring the rally by helicopter died in a crash.
Charlottesville has not been the same since.
This picturesque city of fewer than 50,000 people — home to the University of Virginia and not far from Shenandoah National Park — has roiled since white supremacists converged in a “Unite the Right” rally, following a city decision to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E Lee.
The Sunday town hall, hosted by the city and the Justice Department’s Community Relations Service, was planned as a way to move forward.
But many asked why police did not do more to quell the deadly violence.
Charlottesville has not been the same since.

“This is not about blame, this is about accountability,” said Judith Minter, the owner of a downtown business, who voiced disappointment that there was not more clarity about “why the police failed the community that day.”

City officials were present but did not take the stage to give a detailed defense of their actions. The city announced Friday that it had hired former U.S. attorney Tim Heaphy to lead an independent review of the city’s response to the Aug. 12 rally and two others in recent months.

Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy said in an interview that the gathering was intended to give residents the chance to speak. “We need to listen and empathize and let people express themselves,” he said.
Sunday’s event was led by a federal official from the Community Relations Service, and some who stepped forward took issue with the Justice Department itself and the messages that have come from Washington and the Trump administration.
“The leader of your department is another monument to white supremacy that must fall,” librarian Dave Ghamandi, 30, told the crowd, saying Attorney General Jeff Sessions was named for Confederate heroes.
The gathering went beyond its planned two hours, touching on issues of racial inequity, free speech, gun laws, Confederate monuments, affordable housing and civic leadership.
“I would just ask that we adequately prepare for the next time and continue to resist this scourge,” said Dena Imlay, president of a neighborhood association.
The town hall came six days after a contentious City Council meeting that grew so raucous that council members left the chamber. According to the Charlottesville Daily Progress, two women then went to the dais and stood on it, holding a banner that read: “BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS.”
In the early hours of Tuesday, the council voted to shroud the city’s statues of Lee and Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson in black fabric. But during the weekend, the statue was uncovered overnight, the newspaper said.
On Saturday, police charged three men with felonies in attacks on counterprotesters at the Aug. 12 “Unite the Right” rally. One of the men has been identified as an imperial wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and one of the men is still at large.
Police said 18-year-old Daniel P. Borden of Mason, Ohio, is part of a group of six men who violently beat a man in a parking garage next to the Charlottesville Police Department. The attack was captured on video.
Borden and Alex Michael Ramos, 33, were charged with malicious wounding, related to an aggravated assault. Ramos was being sought Sunday, police said.
Richard Wilson Preston, 52, was charged with discharging a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. Preston has identified himself to news media as the imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, based in Northern Maryland.