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Virginia Beach mayor sends letter of solidarity to Charlottesville

Posted at 3:53 PM, Aug 16, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-16 15:56:22-04

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms wants Charlottesville to know he stands with them.

After the city saw violence – which turned out to be deadly – during a white supremacist rally over the weekend, Mayor Sessoms posted words of encouragement to Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer on his Facebook page condemning “hatred, bigotry and violence”:

The “Unite the Right” rally was organized by the white nationalist blogger and Charlottesville native Jason Kessler. It included white nationalist and other far-right groups protesting Charlottesville’s plan to remove relics of its Confederate past, such as a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in the city’s Emancipation Park.

The rally began on Friday on the campus of the University of Virginia. Counterprotestors gathered to rally against the right-wing demonstrators, and violence escalated as the two sides clashed.

Related links:

Full coverage: Charlottesville protest