D.C. police and Metro are working on potentially controversial safety plans ahead of the Unite the Right rally. Mark Segraves reports.
UPDATE: Metro's board chair now says the transit system will not have separate trains for demonstrators. This story is no longer being updated. See here for the latest coverage.
Metro is considering providing separate trains for opposing groups when demonstrators come to Washington, D.C., for a "Unite the Right" rally Aug. 12, the chairman of the transit agency's board said.
"We have groups clearly at odds with each other," Chairman Jack Evans said. "We'd like to keep the groups separate. We don't want incidents on Metro."
"Unite the Right" demonstrators plan to use Metro from the Vienna, Virginia, station to Foggy Bottom in D.C. Police and Metro are making plans to avoid a deadly confrontation like the one at the Charlottesville, Virginia, rally last year.
"Maybe put all of one group on a train or a certain car on a train," Evans said. "We're trying to see how can we keep the groups separate so we don't have any incidents but not put in place programs that could be problematic in the future."
According to Metro's largest union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, sources said a group affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan will be provided with three private Metrorail cars. The union said more than 80 percent of its membership is people of color.
"We draw the line at giving special accommodation to hate groups and hate speech, especially considering that the courts granted Metro the ability to deny ads on buses and trains that are 'issue-oriented,'" ATU Local 689 President Jackie Jeter said. "We find it hypocritical for (Metro General Manager and CEO) Mr. (Paul) Wiedefeld to make these unprecedented special accommodations for a hate group."
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The union is advising its members to do what they feel is best to stay safe Aug. 12.
Metro would not confirm that separate trains are even being considered.
"As we do for all events of this nature, Metro is working collaboratively with law enforcement to ensure safe travel for our customers and employees," Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said in a statement to News4. "Transit Police are engaged in ongoing discussions with MPD (the Metropolitan Police Department), the lead agency for the Aug 12. event, as well as Virginia State Police and others as to how to keep everyone safe on that day. While details of the plan are security sensitive at this stage, I can tell you that it has not been finalized."
D.C. police plan to provide and escort for the protesters from Foggy Bottom to the White House, Evans said.
The National Park Service gave initial approval for his application for an Aug. 12 "white civil rights" rally at Lafayette Square, near the White House.
Four counterdemonstration applications have been filed as well, according to the National Park Service, but no permits have been issued yet.
Last August, hundreds of people traveled to Charlottesville to participate in the "Unite the Right" rally and protest the city's plans to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee from a park named after the Confederate general. The list of scheduled speakers included several leading white nationalist figures, including Richard Spencer.
On the eve of the Aug. 12 rally, dozens of young white men wearing khakis and polo shirts marched through the University of Virginia's campus, carrying torches and chanting racist and anti-Semitic slogans. The next day, hundreds of white supremacists and counterprotesters clashed in the streets before a car plowed into a crowd, killing 32-year-old counterprotester Heather Heyer.
James Fields Jr., 21, of Maumee, Ohio, is charged with murder in Heyer's killing under Virginia state law. He is charged separately in federal court with hate crimes.
A monthslong investigation of the rally violence, led by former U.S. Attorney Tim Heaphy, found the chaos stemmed from a passive response by law enforcement officers and poor preparation and coordination between state and city police.
In July, rally organizer Jason Kessler reached a settlement agreement in a separate lawsuit over last summer's violence in Charlottesville. Kessler signed a consent decree in which he agreed to "actively discourage" coordinated, armed activity at any future rallies in the city. More than a dozen other defendants signed similar agreements.
Also last month, Kessler withdrew his request for a court order allowing him to stage an event in Charlottesville.
Lisa Woolfork, a University of Virginia professor and Black Lives Matter Charlottesville organizer who attended the hearing, said she felt sure white supremacists would return to Charlottesville with or without a permit.
"What's more important is that we as a community come to resist," she said.
Charlottesville Police Chief RaShall Brackney said the department would prepare for an event and monitor social media.
"We understand that the weekend and that day has national significance and even international significance, so we are going to be prepared for that weekend to come regardless," she said.
