A couple dozen. That’s the prevailing estimate of the number of White supremacists who showed up in Washington D.C. for the Unite the Right 2 rally yesterday (August 12). Organized by Jason Kessler a year after he invited White supremacists to descend on his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, brutally beating Black counter-protesters like DeAndre Harris and killing White counter-protester Heather Heyer, the gathering reportedly fizzled before its scheduled start time.

Per Vox:

A couple of hours before the march was supposed to start, around 20 to 25 White nationalists, led by rally organizer Jason Kessler, had arrived at Foggy Bottom. Instead of waiting around, and swarmed by media, police and a lot of counter-protesters, they had forged ahead on the march route hours earlier than scheduled. There, Kessler complained to reporters about the police in Charlottesville and counter-protesters, and then left.

Despite being surrounded by thousands of anti-racist and anti-fascist counter-protesters as he marched to the rally cite across from the White House, Kessler took to Twitter to proclaim his event a success:

 

Meanwhile, organizers and activists—including those with Black Lives Matter D.C., BYP100, Stop Police Terror Project D.C. and Black Leadership Organizing for Change—celebrated the day as a victory:

 

There were few reports of violence—NPR reported a clash between anti-fa and the Secret Service—but a photo of an officer using pepper spray on counter-protesters surfaced:

 

Many took to social media to mock the event—and to remind the world that this low turnout is not indicative of racism’s hold on the nation.

 

Much of the attention surrounding the rally focused on the city providing law enforcement officers and special public transportation access to protect the group.

“We have people coming to our city for the sole purpose of spewing hate. It didn’t make sense last year, and it doesn’t make sense now.… While we are opposed adamantly to what we are going to hear, we know what our responsibility is—to protect First Amendment events, to protect Washingtonians and to protect our city,” D.C. mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) told press ahead of the rally.

The Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, said last week that it would not aid the city’s tentative plan to provide separate trains for the White nationalists.

“More than 80 percent of Local 689’s membership is people of color, the very people that the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist groups have killed, harassed and violated. The union has declared that it will not play a role in their special accommodation,” president Jackie Jeter said in a statement, as reported by The Washington Post. “Local 689 is proud to provide transit to everyone for the many events we have in D.C. including the March of Life, the Women’s March and Black Lives Matters,” Jeter continued. “We draw the line at giving special accommodation to hate groups and hate speech.”

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority  (WMATA) board chairman Jack Evans subsequently told The Washington Post that WMATA would not go against the union’s wishes. “Metro will not be providing a special train or special car for anyone next Sunday,” he said.

The tweets below appear to show otherwise, as witnesses say that the general public were barred from the car that held the White supremacists.

 

Now, the union is calling for WMATA general manager and CEO Paul Weidefeld to be fired. The union has been advocating for Weidefeld’s removal since July, saying that he has “failed” the riding public and WMATA employers and has “trampled” their collective bargaining agreement.

 

WMATA disputed the allegations of special treatment, per the local NBC station:

“The Kessler group traveled from Vienna to Foggy Bottom on a regularly scheduled train, together with other passengers, media and law enforcement,” the Metro statement said in part. “They were escorted by police onto the rear of the train and police rode in that rail car and others to protect the safety of everyone onboard the train.”

Metro said the train stopped at every station to allow any customers to enter and exit, and the Vienna station remained open to the public “at all times.”

Tags
National Security
Trump Presidency
Unite The Right
White Nationalism
White Supremacy