Charlottesville ‘Unite The Right’ Civil Trial Begins

A civil court case over 2017′s violent Unite the Right rally began Monday in federal court in Charlottesville, Virginia. The trial got underway with day one of jury selection.

The case goes to a question of conspiracy. Did the alt-right people and organizations who came to Charlottesville in August 2017 plan and coordinate a violent gathering? If the jury says yes, then damages can be awarded to those hurt by the events of those days.

Neo-Nazis and white supremacists had gathered in Charlottesville to protest the city’s planned removal of a large bronze statue of the top Confederate commander Robert E Lee. The incident sparked a wave of racial protests in the US and attacks on Confederate monuments.

The suit was filed under an 1871 federal law known as the “Klu Klux Klan Act” passed by Congress after the US Civil War to provide legal avenues to address organized violence against Blacks by white gangs in the South.

It seeks damages against rally organizers Jason Kessler and Richard Spencer, who coined the term “alt-right,” and other defendants, including leaders of prominent white supremacist groups whose members attended the rally; Vanguard America, the Traditionalist Worker Party, the League of the South, the Nationalist Front and Knights of the Klu Klux Klan.

“The evidence in our case makes crystal clear that this violence, the violence that took place over August 11 and 12th, 2017 was not an accident,” said Amy Spitalnick, executive director of Integrity First for America, a non-profit group formed to fund the lawsuit.

The case is built on a vast collection of chat room exchanges, social media postings, and other communications in which the defendants use racial epithets and discuss plans for the demonstrations, including what weapons to bring, The Associated Press reported.

The statue of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate leaders was finally removed this past summer.

Jury selection is scheduled to end on Tuesday, with opening arguments beginning Wednesday.

The trial is expected to last four weeks.

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