White Supremacists Denied Permits For Charlottesville Anniversary Rally

Protestors at the white nationalist Unite the Right rally in Virginia. Image by gettyimages

By Sam Kestenbaum December 13, 2017

Organizers behind last summer’s deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia are being denied permits to hold a second rally on its anniversary next year.

The original rally, which drew a large crowd of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, devolved into violence and resulted in the killing of one counter-protestor.

The city of Charlottesville said that a second rally could pose “a danger to public safety,” according to denial letters obtained by The Daily Progress, a newspaper in Charlottesville.

The city manager wrote that the events would “present a danger to public safety” and “cannot be accommodated within a reasonable allocation of city funds and/or police resources.”

Communist government of Charlottesville denies permits for multiple right-wing rallies including the Unite the Right Anniversary Rally. BUT WE WON’T BE STOPPED.https://t.co/OQ4j6IqPBS https://t.co/B086ycC89d

— Jason Kessler (@TheMadDimension) December 12, 2017

Jason Kessler, the white nationalist who spearheaded the original march, told his Twitter followers that the “Communist government of Charlottesville” had denied his application — and said he would sue.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

Sam Kestenbaum is a contributing editor and former staff writer for the Forward. Before this, he worked for The New York Times and newsrooms in Sana, Ramallah and Beijing. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum and on Instagram at @skestenbaum.

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