Can We Just Admit that the Virginia Flaggers are the Diet-KKK

Let’s start off with the Flaggers posting something about the UK voting to leaving the European Union and comparing it to the Confederate Secession. Never mind that no state had an election for secession, or that the differences between a nation-state and an neo-liberal non-governmental organization. You can probably get a better opinion about it from someone other than the Flaggers or myself.

Let’s focus on this instead…

Maybe you have heard of Billy Snuffer before

Yes, that’s the Imperial Wizard of Rebel Brigade Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. (Image via RayCom and WRIC NBC12)

 

This Virginia Flagger Looks Like a Klansman

These photos of a Klansman in Colonial Heights, Virginia were circulating the web. According to the Progress-Index, this is Skip Rogers and a Colonial Heights resident. When I saw these photos, I thought the person looked familiar. I’ll let the readers decide if it is the same person.

Outside Colonial Heights Courthouse on March 2, 2016

Virginia Flaggers protest at Virginia Capital in Richmond, Virginia on July 5, 2015

Virginia Flaggers rally at Virginia Capital, Richmond Virginia, July 18, 2015

 

“Agitators” and the People that are Still Living in Massive Resistance

I keep seeing the word agitator being used by the Virginia Flaggers, even in  the year 2016.  So you might be thinking, “what is the context and what’s so bad about that word?”

Well let’s start this story back in 1963 when Martin Luther King Jr was referred to as an “outside agitator.” He said in Letter from a Birmingham Jail, “Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator‘ idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”

Now fast forward more than 50 years to 2014 when 6 law students from Washington and Lee University were successful in petitioning the school to remove replica Confederate flags from the campus or they would engage in a type of protest. Since that story broke almost 2 years ago, the Virginia Flaggers keep referring to them as agitators.

Now there is the saying, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. (Actually I say they should throw bricks but let’s just agree that throwing things inside in glass houses is a bad idea.)

The Virginia Flaggers have sent a letter to the President of the school with their list of objectives for the school.  The school didn’t cave to the Virginia Flaggers “suggestions” disguised as demands. So they protested at W&L University.

Compare the Virginia Flaggers to the law students, you can see that their tactics are the same and the word agitator should be dropped all together.  Except when Virginia Flaggers did not get their way, threats of violence were issued to Washington and Lee University.

…But it won’t.  The Virginia Flaggers are going to continue to use racial laced insults towards people of color who disagree with them.  Just like with Nikki Haley.

Another Weak Showing for the Confederate Flag Lovers

Two weeks, Confederate Flag supporters went to Washington DC and they were embarrassed.  September 19th marked the first day of the 2015 UCI World Campionships in Richmond.  The group Central VA Confederate Flag Rallies put out a call to get people to come out.

This photo speaks for itself, there were only 9 people in attendance.  That’s is about 20 people less than the Alabama Secession Rally last month.  After saying they needed people badly and only 9 people showed up, this should be an embarrassment to their group but instead they took a different approach.

I guess they got me there.  There nine people is more than just me.  But are they competing against me or are the competing against the Governor of Virginia?  I stood by myself for an hour because I didn’t put out a call for any help.  I told people to go to the rally on Monument Ave against the Confederate statues and that event got far more people to attend than this group’s meager nine.

You can also note that 2 League of South members were present, Jason Sulser (bottom) and Dennis Durham (top.)  There was a highlight of the group’s propaganda including the “SECEDE” signs.  It should also be noted that they were a block away from the actual route of the cyclists.

GOAD TIDBIT #31 TRIPP STRIKES AGAIN

I have to wonder if he is posting out of ignorance or lying to drum up support for his cause.  Either way, he wrong on so many levels.

Well I am just going to leave this here…

Notable Attendees from the Protect the South Rally in Washington DC on September 5th.

This man in the ThunderCats tee shirt is Jason Sulser.  He organizes Confederate flag rallies in the Stafford and Fredericksburg area.  He also uses these rallies to recruit for the League of South.  He uses White Nationalist terms like cultural genocide.

Standing behind Sulser is Dennis Durham.  He is openly in the League of South.  He is carrying flag of White Nationalism.

With the camera and Joker shirt is Dan Blake.  He videotapes Confederate Flag rallies and shares them on Facebook.

On the left is Susan Hathaway.  She is founder of the group, The Virginia Flaggers.  This group is responsible for the Confederate Battle Flags along various highways in Virginia, including the one off of 1-95 near Fredericksburg.  Next to her in the reenactors outfit is John C Hall Jr from Dublin Georgia.

The woman behind the flag is Samm Tittle. She is running for President as a far-right independent candidate from Fredericksburg, VA. I can only imagine that the men in suits are her own Secret Service.

RESPONSE TO JASON SULSER

This is is a comment that Jason Sulser left in a status about how I counter protested one of his events.  I wanted to take the time and answer him by reviewing every single one of his sentences.

“If you are so passionate about removing southern heritage then stage your own event.”

I am passionate about vocally opposing the symbols of racism as well as organizations and individuals that promote them as well.  I am not opposing southern heritage, I was born and raised in Virginia and I have Confederate ancestors.  There is no shame in who is in your family tree but there is a problem when you can not accept that they fought on the wrong side of history.  I am opposed to the glorification of Confederate symbols.

“You latch onto the coat tails of others because you can not unite enough folks together to be heard.”

By opposing the groups that support an ideology of racism, I am not latching onto your coattails because I am opposed to your views.  I do not need to rally hundreds of people to change things.  In fact, my views are already the law in Virginia.  I am opposed to state sponsored public displays of any the Confederate Battleflag.

“You choose to attend events that you don’t support simply to agitate and look for trouble.”

You see me as someone who agitates and looks for trouble, but I see it as someone who exercises their right to free speech.  That same can be said about one of the men in attendance, Manny Vega, who also went to an event he didn’t support and he exercised his free speech.  This is how free speech works.

“There is no respect in that.”

This is a key sentence.  I know where you stand.  You don’t respect me or my rights.  You tolerate me, but only because you legally have to.

“Organize an event of your own.”

As I said before, my view of the Confederate Battleflag is already the law.  I didn’t need to hold events to change the law.  However, I have been an organizer for political events that had nothing to do with the Confederate Battleflag.

“I support your first amendment right to protest or stand for whatever you choose and would never attend to cause trouble.”

I don’t need your support to exercise my rights.  However, every event I have held has had a heckler, someone who disagrees and is there to give their dissenting view.  Those people were not you, Jason Sulser, but if this is a nation where people shout their opinions at any given moment, then it must go both ways.  I would not take away Manny Vega’s right to counter-protest Palestinians.

“Your opening remarks against me are somewhat honest although you fail to mention that I greeted myself with a handshake that was turned down and I was immediately attacked by your friend.”

Yes, you did greet me with a handshake but if I could go back, I would not shake your hand.  I applaud Mr Huckstep for not shaking your hand.  You were holding a flag that has been used as a symbol to oppress and intimidate from the moment of its creation to this day.  Also in my opening remark I pointed out that you were standing in front of a hate group.  Mr Huckstep was right to turn down your handshake.  You also use the word “attacked” too loosely.  He called Stonewall Jackson (who was on your shirt) a turd.  Jackson was a slave owner and Mr Huckstep was expressing how Jackson was a person not worth honoring.

“You and your family then decided to intermingle with folks supporting something your against to simply cause trouble.”

Again you accuse me of causing “trouble.”  But really what trouble did I cause?  We didn’t touch anyone, We didn’t steal anything, and we didn’t do anything illegal.  The fact that we exercised our right to free speech in the same area as you is considered trouble in your mind.

“There was no need to do that.”

That’s your opinion.  If I wanted to stay away, I would have gone to the other side of the street.

“There was plenty of free space to stage your own thing.”

It was held at a public space.  All of it was free space.  My free speech is not limited to 20 feet away from where you have your free speech.  But you were the ones putting your flags in my face.  You move towards me after we had gotten away from you.

“I would be very careful with accusations against myself or anyone else there without actual evidence or you will find yourself with a lawsuit against you.”

You are going to threaten me with the law again.  It didn’t work last time and it won’t work this time either.  The Free-Lance Star reported you were with a hate group and that you crumpled up a counter-protester’s sign.  But also keep in mind you don’t have much evidence on the things you have said about me on Facebook either.  I’m sure the public can tell the truth from the fabrications.

“I hope that is clear to you now.”

Doubling up on an empty threat.  Zero times two is still zero.

“You and your group left on your own free will and unharmed as we always have peaceful rallies.”

We left on our own free will and unmoved by your threats.  If your idea of peaceful means not following up on your threats then you need to rethink what peaceful means.

“You also failed to mention the food drive that occured.”

No I didn’t mention the food drive.  You didn’t tell me about it.  You did tell me how you thought you could beat me in a fight but you didn’t tell me about the food drive.

“If you don’t want trouble then be an adult and don’t go looking for it.”

Again trouble.  If you think I am so bad, you could just ignore me.  If you think that I can’t pull a crowd, then keep ignoring me.  I would never be any trouble to you.  I would just be a guy holding a sign.  That’s not trouble, that’s just a different opinion.

“No one comes around you to bother you so show the same respect for others.”

Yes, people come up to bother me all the time.  Except I would prefer to replace the world bother with intimidate.

“Enough of searching out trouble then complaining when it occurs.”

Complaining is free speech.  But this is also odd because you said when it occurs.  I take that as admitting you caused trouble.

“That is quite childish.”

This is coming from a man who used his child as leverage to intimidate me.

GOAD TIDBIT #30

TriPp Lewis told me that he has been speaking to the police about me.  Catch the full video here.

“Are you instigating vandalism? Huh? Cause I had a nice conversation with the police and the state police. Yup. Got that little Twitter announcement. Keep talking you’re going to sink your ship buddy. Yup. Woop woop. I ain’t the one the police are looking at. It’s you. It’s you. The police are looking at you. Criminal.”

Norwood “Tripp” Lewis
July 5th, 2015

Then I got a tip from a Johnny Sentinel about the conversations between the police and Mr Lewis.

Thanks to him I found these posts.

Well there you have it.  The Richmond Police are looking for me because it is apparently illegal to tell people when a group of secessionists are patrolling your neighborhood.  Book him Danno.

Watch out for the Monument Watch

The Virginia Flagger’s Grayson Jennings announced that he would began what he called “Monument Watch” on the historic Monument Avenue.  This comes off two recent cases of vandalism on the Jefferson Davis statue at the intersection of Davis and Monument.  Jennings made this announcement in the most asinine way possible.  To the best of my knowledge, there are no Virginia Flaggers that live on Monument or the adjacent neighborhoods, The Fan and the Museum District.  The entire thing ignores what the neighborhood wants.  I do not know what the neighborhood wants, but at no point did the public get informed about who was coming to their neighborhood.  This post is an attempt to tell the public about this groups activities.

Jenning says in an interview, “What happened to diversity and inclusiveness?  It just doesn’t include southern White people for some reason.”  Jennings has immediately made this about race.

Jennings posts pictures of the monuments he has watched over the past few nights.  None of these statues include Author Ashe.

Jennings is also open about being a secessionist.  He proudly displays a sticker on his back window of his truck that reads, “SECEDE.” He also encourages people to resist the laws of the United States yet wants to run a neighborhood watch.

Jennings is “kicked back” with CC Lesters.  At the time of this photo, Lesters is caught up in the middle of a case involving his ex-girlfriend kidnapping her daughter.

Another case involves a former Virginia Flagger affiliated film maker claiming that he subdued two would-be vandals. However, it was later proved to be a faked story.

Another Virginia Flagger, Tripp Lewis, was arrested while protesting at the VMFA.

Goad Tidbit #29

The Virginia Flaggers keep their flags in rain with no attempt to keep them dry.  This GIF is from the Battle Flag documentary.