The domestic terrorist attack that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia over the weekend of Aug. 11 and Aug. 12, 2017, at the “Unite the Right” rally has brought the rise of white supremacist domestic terrorism into the national spotlight. Both the FBI and U.S. government have formally recognized the increasing dangers of these types of violent organizations and attacks on U.S. soil.
As reported by The Washington Post, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray discussed domestic terrorism in his first congressional testimony on Sept. 27. He stated that his office is currently “very busy” dealing with about 1,000 investigations of suspected white supremacist domestic terrorists. Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), asked for a confirmation of this number, as it is identical to the FBI’s number of ongoing U.S. investigations into Islamic State terror suspects. This revelation by Wray is the first public admittance that in the U.S., domestic terrorism cases roughly equal Islamic State cases, underlying the grave necessity for a strong response to the spread of dangerous white supremacist domestic terrorists.
On Sept. 14, the Senate and House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress assembled and released a Joint Resolution to name the attacks in
Charlottesville as domestic terrorism and condemn “the violence and domestic terrorist attack that took place.” The lawmakers also recognized the many victims of the violent attack, including peaceful counter-protestors and bystanders who were injured and in the case of Heather Heyer, killed, and the first responders who died monitoring the events. They offered “deepest condolences to the families and friends of those individuals” who were killed or injured and to the Charlottesville community as a whole.
On Aug. 15, 2017, The Miller Firm filed a lawsuit against these domestic terrorists on behalf of victims Tadrint and Micah Washington. These sisters were driving home when a neo-Nazi and participant in the rally rammed his car into theirs and into a crowd of peaceful pedestrian counter-protestors. The driver, James Alex Fields, Jr. of Maumee, Ohio, has been charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count of hit-and-run.
The resolution also rejects “White nationalists, White supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis and other hate groups, and [urges] the President and the President’s Cabinet to use all available resources to address the threats posed by those groups.” Specifically, it calls on the President, the President’s Cabinet, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the heads of other Federal agencies, the FBI, and State and local agencies to speak out against domestic terrorism and to improve the reporting and investigations of white supremacist domestic terrorists to prevent future criminal and violent actions of this nature.
The Miller Firm is committed to fighting terrorism both domestic and abroad through the court system and is presently accepting clients who were injured either physically or emotionally by violence incited by the organizers and attendees of the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. If this has happened to you, please visit our website to request a free consultation. You also can call the Miller Firm at 1-800-882-2525 and ask for Jeff Seldomridge, Jeffrey Travers or David Dickens.