America is still coming to grips with what the Southern Poverty Law Center described as 'the largest hate-gathering of its kind in decades in the United States'. The weekend saw a gathering of alt-right nationalists, white supremacists and Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia.
That was followed by a bitter stand-off with counter protestors, before a 20-year-old man allegedly drove through a crowd, killing one person and injuring more than a dozen others.
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But one opponent to the night-time 'Unite the Right' rally, where demonstrators carried torches and some brandished swastikas and other Nazi symbols, wasn't going to rest until they could identify everyone involved.
One Twitter user, named Yes, You're Racist, posted images from that night and called on their followers to help name and shame them for participating.
The first person the user found is named Cole White, and it was also discovered he worked at Top Dog restaurant in Berkley, California. The online sleuth quickly alerted the hot dog and burger chain about its employee's involvement in the rally, and after a few hours, it was revealed that he had been fired.
The chain gave a statement to the Twitter user, saying: "Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We apologise for the delayed response, however we have been inundated with inquiries regarding the incident involving one of our employees that attended the rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"We will be releasing a statement on our website tomorrow.
"For now, we feel it is imperative to let you know that Cole White is no longer employed by Top Dog, LLC."
The Facebook page for the restaurant on Durant Avenue has been hit by a few people, who are angry that they employed him in the first place. One person says: "Any person or business that knowingly and openly employs and continues to employ disgusting, racist, trash...especially in the service industry ...deserves the shitstorm that is currently headed their way.
"If you'd like a side of Neo-Nazi skinhead propaganda and maybe some crosses burnt on your lawn, then most definitely head over to this place."
While another person says: "Clean up your act top dog. Get racist shit off your webpage and apologize for it ever being there."
But several others have been quick to jump to Cole's defence: "Wow! The guy must be the wrong colour to keep his job. He goes to protest to exercise his right to free speech and loses his job over it. You guys are scum."
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US President Donald Trump was at the centre of criticism yesterday, after taking hours to respond to the unfolding incident. First Lady Melania Trump was first to comment on the matter, tweeting: "Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence."
President Trump followed an hour later. He said: "We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let's come together as one!"
The president later mentioned the protests in a speech, condemning 'all sides' for sparking violence, but he was again critiqued for not calling out the white supremacist movement behind the rally.
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One of the most vocal critics was Charlottesville mayor, Michael Signer, who told CNN: "Look at the campaign he ran. Look at the intentional courting, both on the one hand all of these white supremacist, white nationalist groups like that, anti-Semitic groups, and then look on the other hand the repeated failure to step up and condemn, denounce, silence, put to bed, all of those different efforts just like we saw yesterday, and this is not hard."
Unite the Right organiser Jason Kessler also held a press conference yesterday, where he tried to place blame on the city's police for why the violence broke out. But he was whisked away by police when counter-demonstrators interrupted him.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: America, Donald Trump, USA, US
