Tiki denounces use of torches by white nationalists in Charlottesville
Tiki Brand, makers of the popular backyard bamboo torches, is distancing itself from the white supremacists who used them during nighttime rallies in Charlottesville, Va., over the weekend.
The Wisconsin-based company released a statement on Sunday denouncing the use of the torches by hate groups:
TIKI Brand is not associated in any way with the events that took place in Charlottesville and are deeply saddened and disappointed. We do not support their message or the use of our products in this way. Our products are designed to enhance backyard gatherings and to help family and friends connect with each other at home in their yard.
The torch-bearing demonstrators descended on Charlottesville on Friday night to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Violence erupted Friday night and continued into Saturday afternoon, when a car rammed into a group of counterprotesters, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 other people.
The driver, 20-year-old James Alex Fields Jr., was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, three counts of malicious wounding and one count related to leaving the scene. Fields was seen earlier in the day demonstrating with a white nationalist group. Fields’ former teacher said he was a Nazi sympathizer.
Two Virginia state troopers were also killed when their police helicopter crashed into woods near the rally.
Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer said Sunday on CNN that one of the torch-bearing groups showed up outside a historic church to interrupt an interfaith service on Friday night.
“So you had already a clash of this hatred and this intimidation, this intolerance and this terror coming right up on the doorstep of people who were trying to bring love against hate,” Signer said.
It’s not the first time Tiki torches have been used by white supremacists in Charlottesville. Back in May, Signer condemned a large group of torch-bearing white nationalists who marched across a city park in protest of the statue’s removal.
“This event involving torches at night in Lee Park was either profoundly ignorant or was designed to instill fear in our minority populations in a way that harks back to the days of the KKK,” Signer said at the time. “Either way, as mayor of this city, I want everyone to know this: We reject this intimidation. We are a welcoming city, but such intolerance is not welcome here.”
Read more from Yahoo News on the violence in Charlottesville:
