The Democrat Party’s communist coup against the Historic American Nation intensifies—not just the lawless indictment of President Trump, the disgraceful Douglass Mackey / Ricky Vaughn political meme judicial lynching and the Garland Justice Department’s recent announcement that it intends to prosecute/ persecute an outrageous further thousand patriots over the January 6 Capitol Insurrection Hoax, but now the felony charges against participants in the famous 2017 Charlottesville Tiki Torch march. (N.B. This was not the next day’s Democrat-mugged Unite the Right meeting to protest the destruction of the Robert E. Lee statue—just the previous night’s demonstration, which was purely political and passed off without any serious incident.)
When the lavishly-financed Sines v Kessler lawfare civil suit against Unite the Right organizers concluded with a decidedly mixed result for the plaintiffs in November 2021, it seemed that, for most of us, the book could finally be closed on the events of the 2017 rally in Charlottesville. The Ruling Class had turned their attention from the easily marginalized attendees of Unite the Right and began using a similar template against normie Civic Nationalist Trump supporters, seeking heavy-handed prosecutions for dubious charges based upon the relentlessly-enforced Insurrection Hoax Narrative.
Unfortunately, we underestimated the communists’ vindictiveness and desire for total domination. Thus this week it was announced that the Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Hingeley was bringing felony charges against participants of the 2017 Charlottesville Tiki Torch march [Grand jury indicts torch carriers in 2017 Charlottesville rally, by Salvador Rizzo, Washington Post, April 18, 2023].
Sealed charges were filed on February 6, 2023. Since then, three men have been arrested for their participation in the Tiki Torch march: Tyler Bradley Dykes of Bluffton, SC; Dallas Medina of Ravenna, OH; and Will Zachary Smith of Nacona, TX. Smith was arrested that month, Medina in March, and Dykes in April.
Obviously, there are questions about the six-year delay in securing the indictments (although technically there is no statute of limitations on felonies in Virginia). Significantly, law enforcement officials at the time had declined to pursue charges against the Tiki Torch marchers. Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney David Chapman told then-City Manager Jones that the actions of the marchers were not prosecutable under the laws as written [Chapman memo to Jones: No Saturday night prosecutions, WINA.com, October 8, 2017]. (This memo refers to a post-Unite The Right march, but the principle applies.) Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert N. Tracci likewise declined to pursue charges. During a 2019 election debate, Tracci’s challenger Soros-backed Jim Hingeley disputed that decision. Tracci again reiterated the impossibility of indicting the marchers. But Hingeley unseated Tracci, and since then has pursued his campaign promise to prosecute the demonstrators.
The relevant Virginia statute, passed in 2002 and meant to address Klan Cross Burning, says:
Any person who, with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons, burns an object on a highway or other public place in a manner having a direct tendency to place another person in reasonable fear or apprehension of death or bodily injury is guilty of a Class 6 felony
But how does this statute apply? Is lighting a Tiki Torch, an item usually used as a yard decoration at evening parties, what the statute meant by “burning an object”? Does lighting a Tiki Torch really place another person in reasonable fear of death or bodily injury?
And what about the required “intent to intimidate?”
There is clear evidence of the intentions of the march organizers. The Tiki Torch March was not announced in advance for the express purpose of denying leftist counter-protesters the opportunity to assemble in large numbers. When it was discovered on the day of the march that counter-protesters would be present, organizers debated whether to cancel their plans. This discussion was captured on video by Christopher Cantwell, who out of a well-advised abundance of caution wore a body camera for the entire day.
In the video, Cantwell asks Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler:
Is law enforcement already cooperating with us on this?... I’m going to tell you from my perspective, if we’re gonna do [the march] at all, I want the cops involved.... We need the cops on our side one hundred percent of the time with this.
Kessler replies:
Okay. I have a contact with the police department. We can speak to them before we do this.
Cantwell continues:
If they are, for whatever reason, unwilling or unable to escort us through this, I would suggest calling [the torch march] off.
And FOIA documents prove that law enforcement was aware of the planned march hours before it happened. (Though officers were present throughout, both protesters and counter protesters complained afterwards that law enforcement presence was too small and passive.)
It is absurd on its face that people whose intent was to commit felonious acts of intimidation would proactively inform the police of their plans. Every indication is that participants intended to conduct a bold, memorable, but entirely legal and constitutionally protected demonstration.
VDARE.com has frequently pointed out in the years since Charlottesville that the torchlight parade is an American tradition. James Fulford wrote here recently that
A brief word about the torchlight parade, much mocked because they were using Tiki Torches—which in this context means ”fire safety.” Torchlight parades are an American tradition—during the dark days of World War II, when there were real Nazis and Fascists to fight, a torchlight parade greeted the re-election of...Franklin Delano Roosevelt [Remarks to the Torchlight Paraders on Election Night, Hyde Park, New York, November 7, 1944]. It was reenacted at Hyde Park in 2016.
The Albany, NY reenactors are pictured below outside the Hyde Park home of FDR—note that they’re using Tiki torches, too.
A Modern Day Torchlight Parade, NPS, October 30, 2016
None of the torches at Charlottesville were used to set anything on fire, any more than they were in similar parades in Estonia, or three months ago in Israel, where leftist protesters paraded with torches to protest Netanyahu’s judicial reforms.
Thus far, the arrested men were either notably active in the fray or associated with high-profile attendees. But an unknown number of additional indictments remain sealed.
Further evidence that the charges are political in nature: The fact that the arrested men had all been previously doxed by communist activists, and that these activists seem to have an inside line to the plans of the Commonwealth.
The story about the arrests was first broken by Charlottesville-based, Antifa-connected activist and blogger Molly Conger. She announced on Twitter Sunday evening that the Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office was bringing felony charges against participants of the torch march.
exclusive from me: the albemarle county commonwealth's attorney's office has brought felony charges against tiki torch marchers nearly 6 years after unite the righthttps://t.co/3JVxYUKhwk
— molly conger (@socialistdogmom) April 17, 2023
She did not immediately provide names of those being charged, but promised her followers that “there’s lots more to come!”
Transgender activist Emily Gorcenski, who was based in Charlottesville in 2017 but now resides in Germany, curiously tweeted, “This is public so now I can share it” along with a link to the Washington Post story about the indictments.
It is unclear whether the Commonwealth plans to round up a few key participants, or all of the hundreds who carried a torch that evening. This secrecy and uncertainty has rattled everyone associated with the event, including many who have gone on with their lives and are no longer involved in activism. It is certainly intended as a deterrent to anyone else who might consider standing up against communist hegemony.
The prosecution of march participants for what was clearly First Amendment-protected activity should be of concern to all. What might any of us have done that could be deemed, retroactively and in bad faith, as illegal by our political enemies?
It has become clear that, with leftist prosecutors, judges and juries, the letter of the law is no defense.
And of course, this is the point. The true offense is that white advocates made a bold public stance that rattled the Ruling Class. Punishment must be meted out, and terror instilled in anyone who might consider doing likewise in the future.
Anne Wilson Smith (email her) is the author of Charlottesville Untold: Inside Unite the Right and Robert E. Lee: A History Book for Kids. She is also the creator and editor of Reckonin.com.
