Statement of the Transformative Justice Coalition

on Charlottesville Tragedy:

Like many, we were profoundly disappointed and disgusted by the President’s initial vacuous remarks and response to these hate-ridden assaults. His failure to name the Neo-Nazi, KKK, and White supremacist groups was deliberate and complicit. Instead, by referring to “on many sides“, he purposefully falsely equated White supremacist genocidal organizations with civil rights groups and their opponents.  Having created an atmosphere in which he urged people to assault protesters during his campaign and having demonized people of color, immigrants, and Muslims which has led to an increase of hate crimes in our nation, the President has a special obligation to have openly denounced these groups and repudiated their actions. Indeed, the immediate response from the Daily Stormer and many other White Supremacist organizations was to claim comfort, vindication, and no condemnation from his vapid statement and words.

On Sunday, the American people responded to the Charlottesville massacre by holding massive “Solidarity with Cville” marches throughout the nation. These thousands of voices raised up in opposition to White supremacist, Neo Nazi hate, was a fitting tribute to the spirit of Heather Heyer and all racial-justice loving people.

Only on the third day, after a significant bipartisan backlash, did the President finally utter a condemnation of Neo-Nazis, White supremacists, and the KKK. Again, this proved too little to late, as even pointed out by the White supremacist originations, which disclaimed his statements as “hollow” and “forced”.

The Transformative Justice Coalition calls upon all Americans to continue to hold the Trump Administration accountable in fighting against these White supremacist organizations. We demand the immediate remove of Steve Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, and Stephen Miller from the Trump Administration given their associations with Neo-Nazi, White Supremacist, KKK, and Alt-Right organizations and ideologies. We call on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to immediately and vigorously pursue all hate crimes that were committed in Charlottesville by these White supremacists, including the assault on Deandre Harris and the ministers. We specifically demand that these White supremacist, Neo-Nazi, and KKK organizations be fully included in all U.S. governmental counter-terrorism lists, programs, and activities. We demand the restoration of the Obama Administration “Countering Violent Extremism” funding program, which helped local organizations to stop violent extremism and recruitment, and transition recruits of right-wing hate groups back into society and also funded research on programming to counter online White supremacist propaganda, which was rescinded in June.  We call on the FBI, the DOJ, and the SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) to establish a systematic program for identifying and removing White supremacist infiltrators in law enforcement. We call upon the Trump Administration to fully deploy the Community’s Relation Service in helping communities to heal from White supremacist hate crimes and to prepare communities in advance of any planned assaults/marches by these hate groups.

TJC is committed to fighting for these reforms and to holding this administration accountable for fighting against the hate and violence generated by Neo-Nazis, White supremacists, the KKK, a nd their ilk. We encourage all Americans to take heed to eschew hate, embrace love, and be active in seeking change as Heather Heyer would have wanted us to do. “‘I’ve never had a close friend like this be murdered,’ Ms. Blair [ Heather’s friend and former co-worker who also attended the counter-protests, and was crossing the street when her boyfriend pushed her out of the way of the vehicle as it came plowing into the crowd] said. ‘We thought, ‘What would Heather do?’ Heather would go harder. So that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to preach love. We’re going to preach equality, and Heather’s death won’t be in vain.”