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Notes -
Charlottesville re-examined
Nine years ago, James Fields Jr drove his Dodge Challenger into a large crowd of protestors in Charlottesville. 99.99% of Americans believed him to be an evil Nazi murderer and viewed his life sentence as just. However, to the degree that the alt-right still exists, several in this group still believe that Fields was the victim of a miscarriage of justice, and that his self defense claim was ignored by a rigged trial. I didn't pay much attention to this event or the trial when it happened, so I thought it would be a fun epistemic exercise to see whether they had a case. Thankfully for the purposes of recapping, the trial was short; opening testimony began on November 29th, 2018, and closing statements were delivered December 6th.
For reference, an imgur album with relevant maps and images.
#1. Background and Police Planning
The Unite the Right rally on August 12 was planned to be held in Emancipation Park (previously named Lee Park, and afterwards Market Street Park) in downtown Charlottesville from noon to 5 pm. This park is bounded by Jefferson, Market, 1st, and 2nd East Streets to the north, south, west, and east, respectively (Pic 1). The police traffic plan for that day is described in the Heaphy report [1], on pages 103-105 (Pic 2). The focus was on preventing traffic from reaching Jefferson and Market. In addition, police would limit access to the downtown pedestrian mall area. This area is located between Market and Water Street to the south; it is bisected east-west by "Main Street", which is only for pedestrians. Two car roads cut north-south through the mall; 2nd Street West, to the west, and 4th Street, to the east. It is important to note that these numbered streets, all the way until 9th street East on the furthest east side, are one-way roads; 4th street was south only.
Officer Tammy Shiflett guarded the important 4th-Market St intersection. She would block traffic attempting to head west on Market or south on 4th, using a sawhorse and her cruiser (Pic 3). However, by around 12 pm, the officer felt unsafe as various groups of protestors and counterprotestors passed her. With no protective gear, she requested backup. At this time, a fight had broken out at the Market Street parking garage one block to her east (video). Officers arriving at the garage were told about Shiflett's request and decided to retrieve her, along with her car. This was not communicated to the traffic commander, so they did not know that the intersection was now only "guarded" by a sawhorse ([1], p. 152-3).
#2. The paths of Fields and the counterprotestors
Fields drove from his home in Maumee, Ohio on the evening of August 11 and arrived at around 2-3 am on the 12th. He parked in a McDonalds and got some rest. He walked into downtown Charlottesville in the morning, and met a group of neo-nazis, Vanguard America, who handed him a shield; he was seen in several photos marching with them in Emancipation Park [2].
Around this time, Hayden Calhoun and his then-girlfriend Sarah Bolstad also arrived in the area. They parked at the Jefferson School garage (Pic 1), then walked to Emancipation Park at 10 am. They stayed for about 45 minutes, left to use the bathroom, and by the time they returned, violence had broken out and an unlawful assembly was declared [3]; this occurred at about 11:31 am ([1], p. 146). Another protestor, Joshua Matthews, parked at the Market Street parking garage and went to Emancipation Park in the morning. After the unlawful assembly was declared, many of the protestors, including Fields, Matthews, Calhoun, and Bolstad, decided to go to McIntire park, a couple of miles to the north, hoping that the rally would continue there. However, police at the park told them to leave, so they decided to go back downtown. Fields and Matthews met up first, and later invited Calhoun and Bolstad to join them, claiming safety in numbers [4,5,6].
They stopped by a gas station convenience store located on Preston Avenue, about a thousand feet north of the McDonalds where Fields's car was parked; security footage showed Fields in the store at 1:13 pm (Pic 4, [7]). Afterwards, they got into Fields's car, and he drove to Water Street to drop off Calhoun and Bolstad at the Jefferson School garage. A livestream shows Fields's grey Dodge Challenger approaching the parking garage, about 5 and a half minutes before the attack (Pic 5, [8]).
Meanwhile, around 1 pm, a confrontation occurred along Garrett Street, south of the train tracks. Counter protestors threw rocks at militia protestors, and a woman fell and struck her head on the ground. The militia took a position near the Friendship Court Apartments, a predominantly African-American housing complex, which inflamed the counter-protestors. The CPD arrived and separated the groups, and an ambulance arrived for the injured woman. Counterprotestors in other areas heard about these events through their communications networks and headed south to assist. When they got there, the incident was over, and they merged with a group from another park on Water Street. This larger group, of several hundred people, marched east, arriving at 4th Street, where they decided to turn left and head towards the mall ([1], p. 154-6).
#3. Approaching the collision
After dropping off the couple, Fields drove to the Market Street garage, by continuing until he reached 10th Street East and turning left twice to get onto Market Street, going west. Here is where we run into some confusion. There were 3 vehicles involved in the attack; a burgundy minivan, driven by Lizete Short; a silver Camry, driven by Tadrint "Tay" Washington; and Fields's grey Challenger. The minivan can be seen in the livestream arriving at the intersection about 4 minutes before the attack. According to Mrs. Short, she was driving west on Market Street and "someone in a colored vest" waved for her to make a left turn onto 4th street [9]. She doesn't remember the presence of a sawhorse blocking her path.
Ms. Washington, who arrived only a couple of minutes after the minivan, gave a slightly different account. She also was driving west on Market Street, but said that a road block near the parking garage forced her to turn right, up towards Jefferson Street. From there, she tried to continue west but another roadblock forced her to turn left onto 4th (remember that this is a one-way road). Then, reaching the intersection, the right turn onto Market was blocked, and she remembered that there was a roadblock near the garage, so she continued down 4th towards the mall. Meanwhile, she testified that a grey Challenger was following her, making the same turns. [10]. She specifies under cross examination that the first roadblock near the garage was a police car, and doesn't remember anyone waving her through the intersection. She does remember a sawhorse on 4th street, but says that it had been pushed to the side.
What was going on here? The barrier near the parking garage is plausible, since there was a fight there requiring an ambulance, and police likely decided to remain and interdict traffic (also, the CPD headquarters are right next door to the garage). But how could Mrs. Short have passed this, while Ms. Washington did not? Since Ms. Washington appears to have demonstrated better eyesight and memory, her account seems more plausible. In addition, there is no account in the Heaphy report of anyone replacing Officer Shiflett's post. Despite this, helicopter footage from 1:23 pm shows that there was an additional sawhorse blocking traffic west on Market Street at that intersection (Pic 6, [1] p. 156). Maybe someone remembered to put up some kind of barrier afterwards. The other roadblock, on Jefferson, is indicated in the traffic plan, so that has a solid explanation.
Either way, after dropping off Matthews, Fields was alone, and decided to call it a day. At 1:39 pm, he looked up how to get back to Maumee in Google Maps. According to the digital forensic expert, he was on 4th Street, and the directions told him to turn left onto Market Street to exit the area [12]. Instead, likely for the same reason as Ms. Washington, he followed her straight into the mall, towards the counterprotestors.
#4. Dwayne Dixon
Several counter-narratives were offered in the aftermath of the incident. A false flag can be dismissed out of hand, as can the heart attack theory (the aorta being ripped in half does not qualify as such). A more plausible theory centers around the person of Dwayne Dixon, a leftist, rifle-toting professor and member of the group "Redneck Revolt". They had volunteered to provide security for counterprotestors, but decided to stay at nearby Justice Park (Pic 1) instead of heading directly towards the rally. Dixon got himself involved in this case with a rather stupid post, bragging on January 7, 2018 that he had "chased off" James Fields with a rifle before the attack [13]. This could clearly demonstrate self-defense; thus, Dixon was to be the defense's key witness.
Charlottesville detective Steven Young took notice, and went to interview Dixon in March. Dixon claims that he saw a grey Dodge, similar to Fields's car, slowly circle Justice Park three times; on the third pass, along 4th street, Dixon took a step towards the car and told the driver, whom he thought was a cop, to "get the fuck out of here" [14, 15]. This occurred about 30 minutes to an hour before the attack occurred. Dixon gave essentially identical testimony during the trial. The prosecution brought Young up to the stand (for the 4th time), testifying that geolocation data from Fields's phone did not show any circling, and that he was only detected near Justice Park at 1:38 pm [7], when he was driving along Jefferson behind Ms. Washington's Camry.
#5. The Collision
As Ms. Washington pulled behind the minivan, she noticed that the Challenger was reversing back up the hill. Fields stopped on the mall for a brief period (Pic 7 shows this mall area). Witnesses testified that no one was near the car and that it had a clear path to reverse back up 4th street to the intersection [16]. Security footage from a nearby restaurant on the mall captured the car pulling up, and then briefly reversing about a minute later before accelerating forwards [15]. The scraping sound of the bottom of the low-clearance Challenger running over the speed bump was particularly striking [17].
We have a great deal of video and photographic evidence from multiple angles. One piece of evidence the defense used was a photo taken by Ryan Kelly indicating that the brakes were being applied as a counterprotestor jumps out of the way (Pic 8). Based on the position of the sign and cross referencing with google maps, this appears to be about 30-40 feet after the speed bump. Logically, a strange noise coming from your car is a good reason to brake. After this, the brake lights stay unlit even as Fields continues forward into the crowd.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=p6LOKZdLLlE - a collection of multiple angles; collision occurs around 7:30 into the video. At 6:50 you can see the Challenger slowly backing up in the background.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=sn5f5qyf7io - Brennan Gilmore's video, taken from the sidewalk near the mall. The brake lights, after appearing briefly at the beginning of the video, do not turn on as Fields continues forward into the crowd of people running out of his way.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ROdcSWgfqBI - By far the best footage is from the overhead police helicopter. This clearly puts the lie to many of the counter-narratives. The car was not surrounded by protestors when it began to accelerate; he had a clear path to reverse all the way back to the intersection, and was not trapped in any way; there was nothing stopping him from turning back onto Market Street and leaving the area. Another counter-narrative is that Fields never actually hit anyone, and that the damage was done by the other cars that he ran into. Even though this in no way absolves him of responsibility, it is indeed false, as can be clearly seen at 1:41 - not that this footage is necessary when a piece of Heather Heyer's flesh was found on his windshield [9].
The Gilmore video shows a protestor stepping into the street and giving his car a smack on the rear with a bat. Some have suggested that Fields stepped on the accelerator in a panic when this happened, although the video is too shaky to tell with confidence. However, it is hard to claim self defense when you're already halfway into the crowd and people are jumping out of the way. Even if he did have a moment of doubt, it could hardly serve as a fig leaf.
One might ask why Fields did not go faster. A police expert, using the overhead video footage, suggested that Fields reached a top speed of 28 mph; the collision with the Camry accelerated it from a standstill to 17 mph within 150 milliseconds. The defense, obviously, did not bring this up: "Your Honor, my client could have inflicted even more damage" is not a great defense, especially when your client did kill someone and cripple several more. However, we can make some educated guesses. 4th street is narrow, and there was a large parked pickup truck on the right side of the road. Just beyond it, on the left side, is a telephone pole. The Camry and minivan cover the middle (Pic 9). Fields would easily have been able to see all three of these obstacles; colliding with any of those things at significant speed risked serious self harm.
As counterprotestors swarmed his car, breaking the back windshield, he slammed the accelerator in reverse, flying back up 4th Street, past the mall, past the intersection, where he turned left to speed east down Market; he was eventually caught by police about a mile away, and surrendered with minor resistance. Upon learning that he had killed someone, he began to hyperventilate and cry. In jail, he told the magistrate that he felt a “really weird” emotion when he saw the counterprotestors. “I didn’t know what to do,” he said [15].
Is it fear that he felt when he saw the singing, chanting crowd? Or perhaps a sense of bitterness and anger, that he'd driven all this way, put so much hope into this event, only to wave around a LARPy shield for half an hour and get booted out of the city without hearing his idols speak? The prosecutor reminded the jury multiple times that premeditation does not require days or weeks of foreplanning; the formation of intent to kill can happen in a second.
As I see it, the self defense claim relies almost entirely on the Dwayne Dixon claim: that a man with a rifle threatened him down 4th Street and "trapped" him in the mall - even though the helicopter footage clearly shows that he could have left the area without interacting with Dixon in Justice Park. The claim that he was surrounded by a raving mob of protestors when he chose to begin accelerating forward - that he had a reasonable fear for his life that justified such an action - is simply not supported by the evidence otherwise.
What is striking is that the defense did not bother to call Fields as a witness. Fields could surely give the clearest account of why he felt in mortal danger and thus bolster his self defense claim. Sure, Fields would almost certainly have been shredded on cross examination, but without his testimony, this defense had no chance of success.
Finally, the photos and videos used in the trial are available for viewing at the Charlottesville courthouse [18]. I don't want to drive several hundred miles just to triple-check my assessment, but if anyone lives nearby, you have access to better material.
Sources:
Most information not specifically cited is taken from the Wikipedia page, which has the basics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottesville_car_attack
[1] - https://www.policinginstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Charlottesville-Critical-Incident-Review-2017.pdf
[2] - https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/13/charlottesville-james-fields-charged-with-was-pictured-at-neo-nazi-rally-vanguard-america
[3] - https://www.whsv.com/content/news/State-trooper-testifies-in-Fields-trial-about-reconstructing-car-attack-scene-502014661.html
[4] - https://www.whsv.com/content/news/james-fields-convicted-of-first-degree-murder-in-charlottesville-car-attack-502204161.html
[5] - https://wjla.com/news/local/witness-fields-murder-trial-deadly-charlottesville-rally
[6] - https://www.wtvr.com/2018/12/06/final-witness-in-charlottesville-trial-says-james-fields-was-calm-and-normal-on-day-of-rally
[7] - https://www.12onyourside.com/2018/12/06/closing-arguments-expected-fields-trial/
[8] - https://youtube.com/watch?v=G9Bf9XOetMw?si=1ugpMPpRx9PGlk7p&t=51 - Screaming can first be heard around at around 7:30.
[9] - https://www.whsv.com/content/news/Detective-offers-graphic-depiction-of-Charlottesville-car-attack-scene-501646121.html
[10] - https://medium.com/@socialistdogmom/the-trial-of-james-alex-fields-episode-4-transcript-db26841797d6 - I tried to cite this author as little as possible because of her obvious bias, but her descriptions are more in depth than most sites and correspond.
[11] - https://c-ville.com/day-5/
[12] - https://c-ville.com/day-8-waiting-game-fields-trial/
[13] - https://archive.is/gF1iR
[14] - https://medium.com/@socialistdogmom/the-trial-of-james-alex-fields-episode-7-transcript-6acf0d14b283
[15] - https://c-ville.com/verdict-fields-guilty-counts-car-attack/
[16] - https://www.whsv.com/content/news/james-fields-convicted-of-first-degree-murder-in-charlottesville-car-attack-502204161.html
[17] - https://www.12onyourside.com/2018/12/03/witnesses-fields-trial-scene-love-quickly-turned-into-pandemonium/
[18] - https://archive.ph/ygPM5
Fields has a history of violence throughout his youth, had multiple posts on social media about the exact topic of wanting to drive through protestors, and pleaded guilty to the charges. There's not much strong argument to contest his guilt there.
But like, why should it matter? One person full of anger and violence doing something bad shouldn't invalidate all the peaceful people at the rally who didn't drive their cars into a crowd, regardless of what their political beliefs are.
Like what exactly are the participants supposed to do there? There's no way to ensure your messaging about the rally never gets seen by a violent criminal or psychopath. There's no way for the average participant to have known who Fields is and what he would do yet alone have been able to prevent it (like what, were they supposed to jump onto a moving car and pull him out of it or something?). But like, even if someone did have ESP and read Fields mind beforehand, what could they do? If the ESP guy physically intercepted Fields beforehand, the ESP guy would be the one charged with assault!
Humans are not a hive mind species, we can not read other people's thoughts and we can not just prevent people from doing what they want without using physical force ourselves. This isn't Minority Report.
This logic of collective blame where one person does something bad so everyone tangentially related to them is insane no matter what direction it goes. The other participants at Unite the Right are not responsible for Fields, in the same way that Jimmy Kimmel is not responsible for the ballroom shooting. People are accountable for their own actions.
Arguments otherwise are meaningless as Scott has pointed out before with the Ashley Todd mugging hoax.
Several of the rally organizers were successfully sued for civil conspiracy.
Anyways, most of those guys have fallen off the face of the earth. Richard Spencer has renounced white nationalism. It's hard to imagine a Unite the Right style rally being held in 2026. On the other hand you have Trump posting Obama's face on monkeys on social media, so who knows what the future holds.
2016: We should Unite the Right!
2024: We have United the Right, sweeping all before us! Look at all these guys!
2026: ….yay?
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