Charles Cantwell, one of the Charlottesville Tiki Torch Tough Guys who started the violence last year during a white supremacist demonstration, pleaded guilty this week in plea bargain.  He got time served in jail, and was ordered to leave Virginia and not return for 5 years.  He’s the moron who was really tough during the demonstration and dissolved into tears when he realized the cops were after him for assaulting innocent counter protestors.  Clearly a Trumpist.

There is a place for anger, and THIS is it.

Remember our reporting about the “militia” group American Freedom Keepers who waltzed into Little Cambodia last month with a racist motorcycle club, running out FEMA and other workers and declaring themselves in charge?  Remember how we wrote about how gun crazies often try to recast themselves as dewy-eyed do-gooders when their gun-slinging gets them into a world of trouble?

Welp, things are not going well for AFK, as they’ve been named in a lawsuit filed by the City of Charlottesville and others for the riots that they made worse by their gun toting presence in August.  AFK was named among other groups, especially the one that calls themselves the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia, a bunch of gun nuts from Latrobe Pennsylvania led by “Colonel” Christian Yingling (yeah, sure), whose image was all over the media that weekend declaring himself and his crowd in charge.

The filing is pretty clear and certainly damning of the actions of our friends and the other private militia groups who decided to take over “peacekeeping” (translation: protecting violent racists) at the time.  NOW, instead of begging for money to burnish their image for their “charity” work in Texas, they get to beg for money for lawyers.  They’re calling themselves the Charlotte 32 as if they’re some poor persecuted group of innocents.  They also love themselves some Latin.  Their new motto copied from Wikipedia is Si vis pacem, para bellum, which translates roughly to “If you want peace, prepare for war”.  It seems like a pretty silly motto, being that they started the war in Charlottesville by showing up and trying to take over.

You can bet they’re pretty worried, too.  The lawsuit states:

Oh, and it gets better:

That lawlessness certainly happened in Charlottesville with one death and many injured.  This suit makes for pretty juicy reading for 79 pages.  Among other things, the City of Charlottesville seeks injunctive relief to keep these dangerous screwballs out of Charlottesville in an effort to take their city back from racists and weirdos.

And it’s not a moment too soon.

Any reasonable educated American supports removing Confederate monuments that celebrate one of the darkest chapters in our history.  Only bigots support status quo because…you know, heritage; but in 2015, everything changed when the mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston by a white supremacists shook the nation, and the monuments started coming down.  The riots in Charlottesville Virginia this weekend that resulted in the deaths of one counter-protestor and two state troopers were propagated by the announcement of the removal of the statute of Robert E. Lee in a city park.  You know, that statue was really important to our “heritage” and it’s just natural to just start beating and running over people with cars if someone wants to take it down, right?  Of course.

The backlash of this weekend’s  violence has been swift and loud.  White supremacist demonstrators are being outed by activists and some fired by their employers for being racist assholes.  Trump has once again been humiliated for being, you know, a racist asshole.  Frustrated human rights advocates have taken matters into their own hands, and today toppled a confederate statue in Durham North Carolina:

Among some of my circle of friends, though they would like to see monuments like this gone from our city parks and streets, they disagree that they should be toppled by activists.  I’ll admit I’m torn and wonder what others might think about this issue.  Before you answer, look at these images:

The first image was taken in Berlin after it fell to the allies in WWII.  Today, Berlin has been scrubbed clean of all Nazi monuments and even doing the Nazi salute is illegal.  The second image is the famous photo of Saddam’s statue glorifying himself being destroyed after US troops entered Bagdad. I don’t think anyone would disagree with either of these actions.  Why would destruction of monuments that glorify the oppressors of millions of human beings be treated any differently?

It’s not an easy question, and I have to say there was a certain satisfaction in watching that stature being pulled over on its head today by ordinary Americans.  Do you agree?

Yes?  No?