US Cities Protest Violent White Supremacist Virginia Rally That Killed 3

Protests have been organized in several U.S. cities against the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville which left three people dead on Saturday.

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People in the cities of Atlanta, Georgia, Oakland, Los Angeles, California, New York, Syracuse, Boston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, as well as in the states of Washington and Maryland, have organized vigils to show their support for the three people who died in the connection to rally.

Nearly 19 people were injured in the clashes between the counter-protesters and the far-right protesters in which several hundred white males waved Nazi flags and chanted slogans. A state police helicopter also crashed while responding to the protests and killed two officers.

James Fields, 20, of Maumee, Ohio, allegedly killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injured 19 others as he rammed his car into a group that was peacefully protesting at Saturday's event in Charlottesville, Virginia.

According to the witnesses' account, those hit by the car during the event were protesting peacefully. The footage shows the vehicle crashed into another car and threw people over the top of it, the Guardian reported.

Four people have been arrested including Fields who has been charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and failing to stop at an accident that resulted in a death.

The U.S. Department of Justice also launched a probe saying it would investigate into “the circumstances of the deadly vehicular incident.”

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In Brooklyn, hundreds gathered under the banner, "The Rally for Peace & Sanity" organized by the anti-extremism group Indivisible Nation BK. Peaceful protesters rallying in Los Angeles carried painted signs including "No KKK, no fascist USA." While in the Californian town of Santa Ana demonstrators protested "in opposition to the message of hate," and "hope not hate," NBC reported.

"The shocking violence in Charlottesville — and the abhorrent ideology behind it — have no place in America or anywhere in the world," Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles mayor said in a statement about the tragic event.

"Angelenos and people everywhere condemn these acts of hatred, and are deeply saddened by the loss of life and injuries suffered today," he added.

California Senator Dianne Feinstein told the South China Morning Post, "Violent acts of hate and bigotry have no place in America." "Violence like this will solve nothing and will only beget more violence and sow more division," Feinstein added.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, said in a statement yesterday, "I have a message to all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today."

"Our message is plain and simple, go home," McAuliffe added.

National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster suggested the attack could qualify as terrorism

"Anytime that you commit an attack against people to incite fear, it meets the definition of terrorism," McMaster said in an interview with NBC.

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President Trump has come under fire for his comments following the bloody event.

"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides," Trump said in a statement. Critics called out Trump for saying "on many sides" as it purportedly alluded to the counter-protesters.

The racist rally was organized by Jason Kessler, a right-wing Charlottesville blogger, as a protest against the city's decision to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee.

Members from the Vanguard America, a known U.S. white nationalist organization, attended Virginia's small college town in large numbers, where they reportedly marched in military-style formation on Saturday, and also held a torchlight rally the previous night on the University of Virginia campus, the Guardian reported.

The group's shibboleth, “blood and soil” that was used as a popular chant at both events is known to be derived from the Nazi slogan “blut und boden," that links to the concept of racial purity with a particular national territory.

Other known white supremacist groups who attended the rally were Identity Evropa, the Southern nationalist League of the South, the National Socialist Movement, the Traditionalist Workers Party, and the Fraternal Order of Alt Knights.

A Twitter vigilante account "YesYoureRacist" is crowdsourcing and listing the names of people who attended the rally.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Virginia rally was the largest gathering of white supremacists in the United States in decades.