Charlottesville is gearing up for a long, hot summer as members of the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacist groups vow to visit and hold rallies there, but city leaders have a plan to keep things cool.
When city councilman Bob Fenwick first heard the Klan was planning a protest in Charlottesville, he was curious.
“Who in the year 2017 would show themselves publicly as a member of this organization?" he wondered. " My plan then was to attend, to turn my back on the Klansmen, and then walk slowly away. Then I realized this group will be joined by the same people who come to city council meetings with pistols and machetes. They seek confrontation and disruption -- the more volatile the disruption, the better.”
So on July 8th he’s decided to take the advice of Charlottesville’s Police Chief Al Thomas.
“If you have concerns about the Klan rally in the park, my advice is simple," he told a news conference Tuesday. " Stay home. Don’t take the bait. Please be mindful that extremists are not persuaded with calm reasoning or shouting.”
Mayor Mike Signer says security will be strong with city, county and UVA police on duty.
“We will not allow violence in our streets, and we will act swiftly and strongly against anyone who threatens the rule of law here!” he vowed.
He also plans to skip the Klan’s rally but took this occasion to call the group trash, while singing the praises of freedom of speech.
“The thing about garbage is that while it can fester in the darkness, with exposure to light and oxygen it disintegrates into fertilizer,” Signer said.
Even Wes Bellamy, city council’s only black member and a frequent target of the Alt-Right, plans to stay away.
“There is a time and a place for everything, and us confronting the Klan in a shouting match of physical altercation is not going to get us anywhere.”
He and the others urged members of the public to consider attending a variety of community activities being organized for what Charlottesville is calling Unity Day – including various programs at the African-American Heritage Center, a family picnic and free, live music at the pavilion.