Note: This article contains graphic photos of anti-Black violence.
African-American school teacher DeAndre Harris, victim of a beating by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, has been charged with assaulting the white supremacists who beat him with boards, iron rods, and brass knuckles.
That is correct. Harris, who was shown being beaten close to death in photos released by Truthout and carried worldwide, has now been charged with the same crime as his attackers: “unlawful wounding.”
Several of Harris’ attackers remain on the run — and local and federal officials show little interest in going after them. Yet, the Charlottesville Police Department issued a warrant to arrest Harris on October 9.
Harris is accused of taking a swing at a neo-Nazi who tried to stab a friend of Harris with the staff of a flag pole holding a Confederate flag. On the advice of his lawyer, Harris was unable to be reached for comment.
White supremacists beat Black schoolteacher DeAndre Harris in a parking garage in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017. (Photo: © Zach D. Roberts 2017)
(Photo: © Zach D. Roberts 2017)
(Photo: © Zach D. Roberts 2017)
Zach Roberts, for Truthout, spoke with Lee Merritt, Harris’s attorney and a legal specialist on police brutality and corruption. Merritt stated, “This is probably the most extreme case I’ve seen. Not only is [the victim] charged with a crime but he’s charged at the same level as the men who broke his bones, who caused serious bodily injuries, caused him to get 18 staples in his head … the men who beat him within an inch of his life. [Harris] is getting the same charge as [those] involved in a violent supremacist group who were involved in attacks, not only of DeAndre, but attacks of other people all weekend.”
It should be noted that our photographer Roberts was also attacked with what appears to be a wooden flagstaff by a man identified as Dan Borden of Cincinnati, one of those charged in the attack on Harris.
White supremacist Borden, hours before attacking Harris, threw the metal-tipped wood at photographer Roberts’ head. Roberts photographed the weapon as it whizzed by his head.
A magistrate judge, without talking to witness Roberts, issued a warrant, apparently on the complaint of lawyers for the white nationalists.
Charlottesville police have charged two of Harris’s attackers, but only after a national campaign demanded they do so. One charged, Dan Borden, is shown beating Harris with a four-foot piece of lumber.
The other, Michael Ramos, who claims he acted in self-defense, is shown striking Harris with brass knuckles while Harris is crawling helpless on the ground.
On August 14, US Attorney General Sessions said that neo-Nazi brutality in Charlottesville was the Justice Department’s top priority. “There’s no bigger case right now we’re working on.”
So far, federal authorities have taken no action to identify the man holding what appears to be a 9mm Glock semi-automatic handgun threatening Harris, despite high-resolution photos supplied by Roberts to the FBI.
Crossing state lines with intent to cause harm is a federal offense. Nevertheless, direct pleas to FBI agents by this reporter have failed to get Justice Department action to charge Harris attackers and Roberts’ assailant with these crimes.
Days after the attack, one FBI agent assigned to the investigation told Truthout he was “appalled” by the lack of immediate response to Roberts’ offer of photos to identify Harris’ attackers, but insisted the Department would act. As of today, two months on, there is no sign Sessions’ Department has moved to identify nor apprehend Harris’s attackers.
(Photos by Zach D. Roberts © 2017)
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy