After their September rally-turned-rout, the rag-tag group of Confederate memorabilia sellers, led by Thomas and Judy Crompton and Tara Brandau, that make up the CSA II are returning to Richmond this Saturday for an event they’ve titled “Protect All The Monuments On Monument Ave Rally – Round 2.” Attendance will likely be low again, although members of the anti-federalist Three Percenter militia have said they’ll be in attendance on Facebook.
The last rally, which cost the city at least $570,000, was criticized by residents, anti-monument activists, monument preservationists, pro-Confederate groups, and others. Thomas Crompton was reportedly kicked out of the Sons of Confederate Veterans for the rally, which the group publicly opposed.
Local activists, who vastly outnumbered the CSA affiliates, have confirmed that they plan to be in attendance again to hand out white roses, evoking the memory of the White Rose, a non-violent resistance movement made up of students and academics that operated in Nazi Germany. Other activists refer to the CSA protesters as “snowflakes” on a Facebook event, subverting a common insult used by the talking heads on Fox opinion shows.
Richmond Police have issued a short statement, reprinted below:
“The Richmond Police Department is experienced in crowd control and maintaining public safety. Should an assembly occur on Monument Avenue this Saturday, even though no group applied for a permit, we will be prepared to deal with it. Monument Avenue will be open as usual, without restrictions. We ask anyone who comes to Monument Avenue to be cooperative and non-confrontational. They should stay out of the roadway, remain on the sidewalks and cross in the crosswalks. There will be zero tolerance for misbehavior.”
If online chatter and the group refusing to speak with media about their plans are any indication, this rally will be just as disorganized and sloppy as the last one, which ended with a GoFundMe campaign to help the Cromptons get home.
