East London News A Force for the community…
IT’S LIFE IN prison for James Alex Fields Jr, 22 – an active member of the far right in the USA. And as he prepared to be sentenced, he apologised for killing 32 year old anti-Nazi protestor Heather Heyer. No apology has come from US President Donald Trump, who equivocated rather than condemn the white supremacists Fields thought he was supporting.
Heather Heyer died in August 2017. The southern US city of Charlottesville had announced that it was clearing the city of symbols of its confederate, pro-slavery past. White supremacists gathered to protest at the move, and in particular at the threat to remove the statue of key confederate General Robert E. Lee.
Anti-racists staged a counter-demonstration – including Heather Heyer, a longstanding campaigner for social justice. Her last Facebook post before the demonstration read, “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” James Fields was out that day to support the white racists. He drove his car into a group of counter-demonstrators, killing Heather Heyer and injuring others.
Fields has been convicted of murder and is waiting to be sentenced for that crime. He had also been charged with 30 federal hate crimes. In a deal with prosecutors, he admitted 29 of the offences in return for prosecutors agreeing that they would not seek the death penalty.
His pre-sentence apology to Heather Hayer’s family consisted of him saying that he was sorry for the hurt and loss he caused them. He added that he regretted what he had done and said that every day he thought about how things could have gone differently. These statements were in contrast with his posts on social media before the incident, in which he expressed his support for Hitler and his actions, including the Holocaust.
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