A city council meeting in Charlottesville, Virginia briefly dissolved into an angry protest on Monday as activists and residents demanded answers from officials regarding the response from police during a deadly rally held by white supremacists.
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About 100 activists and residents crowded into the council meeting, the first since the violent demonstrations two weekends ago, and shouted “Shame” and “Shut it down” toward councilmembers and the mayor, forcing them to briefly end the meeting and leave the chambers, according to the New York Times.
As Mayor Mike Signer and council members left the room, two people held a sign that read “Blood On Your Hands,” the Times reported.
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No one was injured and three people were issued citations for disorderly conduct before the meeting resumed, the Times reported.
Activists and residents at the council meeting questioned the response from police during the violent weekend and criticized city leaders for not heeding warnings about the rally, the Times reported.
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“We tried really hard,” Signer said, according to the New York Times, after the meeting resumed, saying that a federal judge forced the city to allow the rally downtown.
Monday’s protest came after hundreds of white supremacists descended on Charlottesville on Aug. 11 and marched with tiki torches through the campus of the University of Virginia, in a display that critics called reminiscent of a Ku Klux Klan rally, before they fought with counter-protesters.
The next day, white supremacists opposed to plans of removing a statue of Robert E. Lee, commander of the pro-slavery Confederate army in the American Civil War, clashed with anti-racism demonstrators before a car plowed into a group of counter-protesters and killed a 32-year-old woman.
The events on Aug. 11 and 12 highlight a persistent debate in the U.S. South over the display of the Confederate battle flag and other symbols of the rebel side in the Civil War, fought over the issue of slavery.
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