Let’s say it all together as a group, folks. You cannot credibly blame both sides for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia two weeks ago. After all, one of those sides was made up almost entirely of racists, white supremacists, and neo-Nazis. Conservative commentator John Podhoretz probably said it best–even if there was violence on the part of the counter-protesters, “they were not the causes of the agitation.” Plus, lest we forget, counter-protester Heather Heyer was murdered in cold blood when a white supremacist plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters.

However, if there is any doubt that the racists and neo-Nazis bear responsibility for the violence, it was erased when the independent media collective Unicorn Riot obtained screenshots from a chat room frequented by those attending the “Unite the Right” rally. They prove conclusively that a significant element among those attending the rally was actively spoiling for violence.

Unicorn Riot is best known for documenting several Black Lives Matter protests, and was also one of the earliest media groups on hand for the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Since August 14, it has been dribbling out screenshots from the “Charlottesville 2.0” chatroom, which was operated by Jason Kessler, Eli Mosley, and other rally organizers. According to Wired News, Unicorn Riot has obtained about 1,000 screenshots documenting several months worth of chats. The chatroom was hosted on Discord, which shuttered it along with several other far-right chatrooms after the rally.

Watch a video mashup of some of the screenshots here.

As you might expect given the nature of this crowd, these chats make for horrifying reading. For instance, as early as a month before the rally, several users were discussing the legality of running over counter-protesters with cars.

Daily Kos was the first to flag this particular exchange, on Tuesday. One user posted a picture of two flaming buses plowing through people and boasted, “This will be us.” The next commenter wondered if Virginia had a law on the books similar to the one passed by the North Carolina state house that would have allowed people who drove through protesters standing in roads to escape prosecution. He then posted a picture of farming equipment with the caption, “Introducing John Deere’s new multi-lane protester digestor.”


That anecdote alone should leave no doubt that these people were thugs. But there’s more. For instance, several participants were discussing whether to target Quakers.

A number of them still wanted to march after word got out that Heyer was dead–at the hands of one of their own, James Fields.

Other screenshots showed users actively planning to attack counter-protesters.

Specifically, they discussed putting screws into flagpoles and having concealed firearms at the ready for “gunfights.” Speaking of guns–several users posted pictures of themselves posing with them.

When Wired confronted Mosley with the screenshots, he conceded that they appeared authentic. However, he stressed that he personally stressed nonviolence in his posts, and actually a number of users for advocating violence. At the same time, though, he thought the furor over the “protester digestor” meme was a lot of fuss over nothing, dismissing it as “dark humor.”

However, Timothy Lutzenberg, who represents two women who sued 28 groups and individuals after being injured at the rally, doesn’t think any warnings against violence will do the organizers much good in court. He believed the “y’all be good now wink wink” attitude displayed by Mosley and others won’t play well in front of a jury. Lutzenberg hinted that he will hammer hard on these screenshots in court, saying that they prove the organizers “totally intended on violence and mayhem.”

Jeffrey Douglas, a board member of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, thinks these screenshots could rob the rallygoers of a defense. While it’s very likely that the organizers will argue that they were merely defending themselves, Douglas believes those transcripts show they were actually hoping for something that would “justifiably trigger a violent response.”

It’s a safe bet that federal and state investigators looking into Heyer’s murder will be very interested in those screenshots as well. Remember, Attorney General Jeff Sessions believes that the car attack meets the legal definition of domestic terrorism. If that car attack is ultimately found to be terrorism, Fields would face only two possible sentences at both the federal and state levels–life in prison or death, but preferably life. Hopefully Unicorn Riot has forwarded these screenshots to authorities. They could provide a very strong incentive for Fields to cooperate.


Just before the close of business on Friday, House Republicans reportedly drafted a resolution that blames “the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, and others” for the violence in Charlottesville. The House Democrats have already let it be known that language is a non-starter. Anyone who looks at Unicorn Riot’s work will come to the same conclusion. They prove not just beyond reasonable doubt, but beyond ALL doubt, that the racists bear sole responsibility.

(featured image courtesy Ryan M. Kelly, The [Charlottesville] Daily Progress)

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