Protesters Attack CBS Journalist in Richmond; He Gets Staples

Protesters Attack CBS Journalist in Richmond; He Gets Staples
(YouTube/screenshot)
Jack Phillips
8/14/2017
Updated:
8/14/2017

A CBS affiliate journalist was reportedly attacked in Richmond, Virginia, by a protester on Sunday night—in the aftermath of the deadly violence in Charlottesville.

The journalist, who was not working for the station when the incident took place, used his phone to record a crowd of demonstrators with signs protesting “against white supremacy.”

CBS 6 posted a video of the incident.

It showed demonstrators marching and chanting.

“Stop filming,” one person said before the journalist’s phone was apparently knocked down.

“I can film whatever I want,” the CBS 6 staffer said. “Get out of my face.”

(Youtube/screenshot)
(Youtube/screenshot)

CBS 6 reported that the journalist was hit in the back of a head with a stick, necessitating him to go to the hospital to get 4 staples in his head.

It’s unclear if the protesters belonged to ANTIFA, which has been criticized for fomenting violence at protests—namely at universities—across the United States. However, some of the banners held by protesters appear to have ANTIFA text and logos. 

(YouTube/screenshot)
(YouTube/screenshot)

It comes a day after James Fields Jr., 20, allegedly rammed his car into a crowd of protesters in Richmond, Virginia, killing one person and injuring scores more.

They were counter-protesting a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

Fields appeared in court on Monday and didn’t enter a plea. He is being charged with second-degree murder.

“He was very infatuated with the Nazis, with Adolf Hitler,” his high school teacher, Derek Weimer, told Cincinnati’s WPCO.

James Fields Jr. had an interest in history, namely with “German military history and World War II. But, he was pretty infatuated with that stuff,” Weimer told the station.

James Fields and his mother Samantha Bloom (Facebook)
James Fields and his mother Samantha Bloom (Facebook)
(YouTube/screenshot)
(YouTube/screenshot)

Weimer described him as respectful of others, but had “radical ideas” on race. News outlets on Sunday reported that the lone fatality in the car crash was a woman, 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who worked as a paralegal.

Heather Heyer (GoFundMe)
Heather Heyer (GoFundMe)

“She was there with her friends and she was trying to simply cross the street as the movement was breaking up that day and she was plowed down by a young man who was intent on spreading hate and thought hate would fix the world,” Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, told NBC News.

Here is another version of the video:

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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