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Saturday, August 10, 2024

A Little Lesson In Virginia City, Nevada!

They told a Black man that the law ain't gonna do anything to stop them from a lynching. Now these three are facing charges.

A Black man who was doing a voter registration in rural Storey County, Nevada was accosted by a white man and his family. The white man told him that he would have been swing from a tree had he gotten near him.

The man and his wife owned a local bar in the unincorporated town of Virginia City.

Because of the confrontation and the woman touching the Black man, the man, his wife and daughter faced battery and possible hate crime charges.
Watch on TikTok

Watch on TikTok

A rural Nevada sheriff is investigating a potential hate crime after a Black man who was collecting signatures for a ballot measure recorded a confrontation with another man he said directed a racial slur at him and said โ€œthey have a hanging treeโ€ for people like him.

The incident occurred when Ricky Johnson was collecting signatures for a ballot measure during the popular Hot August Nights classic car festival in Virginia City, a tourist town just south of Reno. Johnson began videoing after the alleged racist comments were directed at him. In the video Johnson demands that the man repeat the words on video.

It's 2024 and we still have this stuff happening.

A loud, profanity-filled argument on both sides followed before a woman told Johnson he was on her property. Johnson repeatedly asks her not to touch him as they move the conversation into the street, the video shows. At no time on the video is the โ€œhanging treeโ€ comment repeated, nor are any racial epithets uttered.

โ€œIโ€™m still shaking every time I think about it,โ€ Johnson told The Associated Press by phone Monday as he boarded a plane in northern Nevada back to his home in Houston, Texas.

Johnson posted part of the video of the Aug. 2 incident in Virginia City, Nevada, on social media, and the comments drew swift condemnation from local and state officials. Sponsors of the 10-day Hot August Nights classic car event that was being held at the time said it revoked the registrations of those identified in the video confronting Johnson.

Storey County Undersheriff Eric Kern said Monday the office has completed interviews with Johnson and potential suspects and delivered the case to the district attorney for a decision on any charges.
Johnson posted the video to TikTok on Aug. 2, drawing prompt condemnation from local and state officials. The Storey County Sheriffโ€™s Office interviewed Johnson and others involved, then turned over evidence to the district attorney.

On Wednesday, the sheriffโ€™s office issued a news release saying two women and a man had been arrested and booked into jail. The man in the video was charged with breach of peace, a gross misdemeanor that includes making threatening comments based on race. One of the women was charged with battery and the other with interfering with a peace officer, both misdemeanors.

The arrests drew quick praise from Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, who is Black.

โ€œThe public outcry was heard loud and clear, and steps have been taken to hold these individuals accountable for their racist and unlawful actions,โ€ Ford said.

Johnson, from Houston, was in Virginia City working for Advanced Micro Targeting Inc., a Texas-based company that provides voter outreach and get-out-the-vote services. He was collecting signatures for a proposed Nevada state ballot initiative aimed at capping fees that attorneys collect from clients in personal injury cases.

The verbal altercation occurred in downtown Virginia City, an old mining town that attracts tens of thousands of tourists who walk its wood-planked sidewalks filled with old saloons and stores.

The suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

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