Impact of violence from Charlottesville protests felt across NJ

RED BANK — New Jersey residents are reacting to the protests and violent clashes in Charlottesville, Va. with rallies of their own.

Hundreds of people holding flashlights gathered at Riverside Gardens Park in Red Bank for a flashlight vigil organized by the Red Bank Human Relations Advisory Committee. Those in attendance spoke out against white nationalists and alt-right groups that marched in the Virginia city when the city removed a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

"Hundreds of people from Asbury to Red Bank and beyond organized and joined together to show the world that we are one," the Red Bank Human Relations Advisory Committee wrote on its Facebook page.

Sue Fulton, part of the first class at West Point that accepted women told the crowd, "We as Americans believe in free speech, we believe in the freedom of the press and we believe in freedom of religion for all religions,” Fulton roared through the bullhorn. “We believe in due process. We believe in equal protections under the law," according to the Asbury Park Press.

During the marches in Charlottesville, a car rammed into a crowd of protesters, and a helicopter crashed into the woods as tension boiled over at a white supremacist rally Saturday afternoon that left three dead, dozens injured and the usually quiet college town a bloodied symbol of the nation's roiling racial and political divisions.

The chaos erupted around what is believed to be the largest group of white nationalists to come together in a decade.

In addition to the Red Bank vigil another rally is scheduled for Princeton's Palmer Square on Sunday by several groups to show "solidarity with our brave friends in Charlottesville who put themselves at risk to fight against hatred and white supremacy."

Working Families of New Jersey, a group which has organized the "People's Motorcades" past Presdent Trump's golf club when he is there will also hold a "Rally Against Hate" at the Clarence Dillon Library in Bedminster at 5 p.m. on Sunday.

A number of New Jersey politicians posted their thoughts about the Charlottesville protests on Twitter.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com.

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 The Associated Press contributed to this report