DeAndre Harris was just an innocent bystander when the Charlottesville far-right riots broke out. Harris (among many others that day) was senselessly beaten by six white supremacists inside a parking garage during the rally that took place last August just for being African-American.
The whole thing was caught on camera and was shared multiple times on social media, with the public condemning the racist protestors’ actions. Soon thereafter, a GoFundMe page was opened to cover Harris’ medical expenses, and has raised over $160,000 – a figure large enough to cover his multiple injuries that included a concussion, an ulnar fracture, lacerations across the right eyebrow, abrasions to knees and elbows, a chipped tooth, and a head injury that required eight staples.
Fight broke out. Nazis beat black kid w/sticks at end. I kick one in back 2 help & he runs after me. Kid is safe but bloody #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/kr11a8zQ0K
— #StopCopCity (@ChuckModi1) August 12, 2017
Hopefully, Harris still has some of that money left, because a local Virginia magistrate has issued a warrant for Harris, who is now facing a felony charge for unlawful wounding, allegedly for fighting back. If Harris were to be convicted, he could spend up to five years in prison and pay a $2,500 fine.
The alleged victim of Harris relayed his account of the events that took place on August 12th, 2017 to the magistrate office after a detective of dubious capacities of Charlottesville PD concluded that the alleged victim was telling the truth. Harris’s attorney C. Lee Merritt called the statement “clearly retaliatory” on part of the unnamed member of the white supremacist group.
https://twitter.com/Cernovich/status/917531266747994112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.vice.com%2Fstory%2Fblack-man-faces-felony-charge-after-defending-himself-against-neo-nazis
The lawyer also said that his client would turn himself in within the coming days to help with the ongoing investigations. After Harris took the beating, and the video went viral, the young man has been targeted by many white supremacist sympathizers, who to this day continue to beat him online to the point where a day doesn’t go by without him receiving lewd racist messages and death threats.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33R_MqZQCVI
The fact that Harris is wanted for arrest, is clearly because two of his attackers didn’t manage to get away with their crime and have been charged with malicious wounding for attacking the unarmed black man. Daniel Borden and Alex Michael Ramos are the ones that police have been able to charge, with the later claiming not to be a white supremacist, and that it was Harris who dealt the first blow, thus provoking the attack.
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/917852359581208576
This news has been well received by those who believe that the anti-protesters (or Antifa) are as bad as the white supremacists. Their point is that they are both discriminatory and violent – the same argument that has been used to discredit groups like #BlakcLivesMatter.
Hopefully, the good state of Virginia will not fall for this mockery, and will not continue to finance redundant, costly judiciary processes, and instead focus on making amends with its African-American citizens who, as of now, are living in fear.