Counter-protesters shouldn’t be criticized

By Letter to the Editor on August 25, 2017.

I was dismayed to read the recent opinion piece written by Tim Kalinowski, “‘Frontier justice’ is not the answer.” Amidst boilerplate condemnations of bigotry, the author spends multiple paragraphs implying that “counter-protesters are responsible for” the violence committed by a well-armed group of neo-Nazis.

On the first night, a group of counter-protesters were surrounded and attacked by torch wielding neo-Nazis chanting “Jews will not replace us” and “Blood and soil.” This is suspected to be the cause of at least one serious injury — a stroke suffered by UVA worker Tyler Magill.

The next day, groups of neo-Nazis armed with rifles roamed the streets in front of the local synagogue yelling ‘Seig heil’. DeAndre Harris needed staples in his scalp after being beaten with poles in a parking garage. Later that day, a car driven by a white supremacist plowed into a group of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. The Vice News video “Charlottesville: Race and Terror” makes it clear that the neo-Nazis’ goals are not peaceful in nature — they are there to promote and encourage violence and genocide.

That Mr. Kalinowski wastes his column chiding the counter-protesters for causing the violence committed against them is at best a shameful attempt at edgy contrarianism, and at worst an endorsement of the tactics used by modern day fascists.

Greg Johnson

Medicine Hat