KKK Leader Charged For Driving Car Into Black Lives Matter Protesters In Virginia

A self-proclaimed Ku Klux Klan leader has been charged after driving his car into a group of Black Lives Matter protesters.

Harry Rogers has been charged with malicious wounding, assault and battery, and destruction of property following the incident, which took place in Henrico County, just outside of Richmond in Virginia on Sunday, June 7.

On his arrest, Rogers told police he was the president of the Virginia branch of the hate-filled, racist organisation, the Ku Klux Klan.

Fortunately, no one was seriously injured during the incident on Lakeside Avenue, near Vale Street, and the person who made the call to police was checked over at the scene but declined any further treatment.

Following the incident, a Henrico Police spokesperson said in a statement:

Several witnesses reported that a vehicle revved their engine and drove through the protesters occupying the roadway.

Henrico Commonwealth Attorney Shannon Taylor confirmed the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.

The accused, by his own admission and by a cursory glance at social media, is an admitted leader of the Ku Klux Klan and a propagandist for Confederate ideology.

We are investigating whether hate crimes charges are appropriate.

Describing his acts as ‘heinous and despicable’, Taylor added:

While I am grateful that the victim’s injuries do not appear to be serious, an attack on peaceful protesters is heinous and despicable and we will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. We lived through this in Virginia in Charlottesville in 2017.

I promise Henricoans that this egregious criminal act will not go unpunished.

Hate has no place here under my watch.

The incident took place during the middle of a Black Lives Matter protest, where thousands had gathered to demonstrate against police brutality and systemic racism, after George Floyd was killed by a white former Minneapolis police officer.

Then, in 2017, he was reportedly pictured taking part in a Unite the Right demonstration in Charlottesville, where Heather Heyer was murdered. There, he is said to have carried a shield painted with the ‘southern nationalist’ flag, which is used by members of the League of a South, a neo-Confederate group.

All over the US and in other parts of the world, the protests continue in a bid to put an end to systemic racism.