Marines arrested after displaying white nationalist banner at pro-Confederate rally
No one seems to know what activist organization the two men represented, or what they ultimately hoped to accomplish with the unfurling of a vague banner over the side of downtown building.
What’s clear, though, is that both men — arrested for trespassing May 20 during a Confederate rally in Graham’s Court Square — are active members of the U.S. Marine Corps and were displaying a banner with symbolism associated with modern white nationalist movements.
Though the USMC hasn’t yet taken action in connection with the incident involving Michael Joseph Chesny, 35, of Havelock and Joseph Warner Manning, 32, of Jacksonville, the military branch has publicly come out against the cause for which the two men apparently stood.
“Of course we condemn this type of behavior,” Maj. Clark Carpenter said. “We condemn any type of behavior that is not congruent with our values or that is illegal.”
Carpenter described the pair’s actions and potential involvement with questionable activist organizations as “not representative of the rest of the Marine Corps,” a group of some 185,000 individuals.
“This is two Marines that behaved inappropriately,” Carpenter said. “That’s going to be investigated, and ultimately it’s an isolated incident.”
The two men, charged with misdemeanor first-degree trespassing, were released the same day from the Alamance County jail on $1,500 bonds.
more: http://www.thetimesnews.com/news/20170527/corps-condemns-marines-behavior
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