HuffPost: 'Unite The Right' Trial Kicks Off With Focus On Organizers' Calls For Violence

By Sebastian Murdock, HuffPost. Read the full article here.

The civil trial over the deadly 2017 “Unite the Right” rally got underway in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Thursday as lawyers for community members argued that white nationalist organizers of the event planned for and encouraged violence.

“This is a case about violence and intimidation for these plaintiffs,” attorney Karen Dunn said in her opening statement in federal court. “They will tell you this is also a case about justice and accountability: accountability for those defendants who planned and perpetrated this violence thinking that they would get away with it.”

Dunn is representing nine Charlottesville community members who are suing organizers of the rally for what they argue was a conspiracy to commit acts of racial violence. The night of Aug. 11, 2017, dozens of neo-Nazis and white supremacists marched with tiki torches through the University of Virginia’s campus, at one point chanting “Jews will not replace us.” The following day, the extremists clashed with anti-racist counterprotesters before 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr. intentionally drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, injuring dozens and killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Fields is now serving a life sentence for the attack.

Several of the plaintiffs were badly injured in the attack, including Marcus Martin, who pushed his fiancee out of the path of the oncoming vehicle and suffered a shattered leg and ankle when he was hit by Fields. Another plaintiff, Natalie Romero, had her skull fractured when she was struck by the vehicle. All nine plaintiffs say they have also suffered emotional damages from the day’s events. The nonprofit group Integrity First for America is funding the lawsuit.

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