Dear Editor:

There is no place in America for any hate group/individual whether identifying with the KKK, white supremacists, black supremacists, Islamic extremists, radical leftists, or radical rightists.

With this said, our constitution allows freedoms of speech and assembly. The people rallying in Charlottesville were purported to be members of the KKK, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists and had a permit to rally for the purpose of keeping our national monuments and not destroying them. This was intended to be a peaceful rally but the participants were prepared to fight any violence that confronted them.
 
The opposing group, having no permit to gather, intent on destroying any semblance of reminders of the Confederacy, slavery, and white supremacy, came with weapons to prevent the rally. They were the ones who instigated the violence. Of course, this provoked those in the rally to fight back, and sadly angered one man to drive his car into the crowd of protesters which ultimately killed a young lady.
 
I can understand why the police didn’t want to get involved because several of their own were shot in Dallas by an individual who hated cops. If the police had tried to maintain law and order – calling out the National Guard if necessary – this mayhem would have been prevented.
 
From what I have observed and read, President Donald Trump was right in blaming “many sides” for the violence. When conservatives attempt to present viewpoints at the universities, in rallies (most recently in Boston), they are unable to do so because protesters – many of them dressed in all black and wearing bandanas – gather in huge numbers. These protestors with have agendas – disrupting peaceful rallies, blocking freeways, preventing conservatives from free speech, destroying property during their protests, hanging a bloodied head of President Trump from a rope and killing him in a stage play, booing Vice President Mike Pence during a stage play of Hamilton, and marching in large numbers to demonstrate hate towards our president.
 
What happened to morality and civility in our country? Our country was founded on love of God and humanity. Hate groups/individuals of any color – white, black, brown, yellow, or red – are destroying our American way of life “big time.” So sad!
 
Martha Morrissy-Call
Downey