Actor/activist Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk) had tweeted last week that he would be participating in a march from Charlottesville to Washington D.C. to protest "white supremacy" and to demand the removal of President Donald Trump. But apparently he felt that giving up partway was sufficient virtue-signaling, because he abandoned his fellow protesters after only eight of the eighteen miles.
Ruffalo released a statement Thursday claiming that he would be taking part in the march in memory of Heather Heyer, who was run over and killed by an Ohio man during the Charlottesville protest on August 12.
“I’m also marching because of the central demand of this march is for Donald Trump to be removed from office following his statement supporting white supremacists and neo-Nazis,” Ruffalo stated. “Our ancestors risked their lives and fought in World War II to stop the Nazis .. Now, we have a president who called participants in the neo-Nazi and white supremacist march in Charlottesville ‘some very fine people.’ Enough is enough.”
That's not the whole story about Trump and Charlottesville, of course, but Ruffalo is a liberal activist, not a truth-teller.
Ruffalo followed up with a tweet announcing, “Heading to Culpeper. Marching 18 miles today alongside these beautiful people. We the people have the power.”
But the local newspaper, the Culpeper Star Exponent, reported that Ruffalo disappeared somewhere along the line: "Actor Mark Ruffalo showed up Thursday morning in Madison [Virginia] and joined the marchers. Ruffalo, however, abandoned the march after about eight miles. He dropped out at a rest stop at Leon and never made it into Culpeper County."
As Newsbusters reported, you would never know that if you simply tuned in to the mainstream media. The Los Angeles Times, for example, gave the impression that Ruffalo went the distance:
On Ruffalo's official Tumblr, he shared several photos with fellow protesters as they marched the 18 miles from Madison, Va., to Culpeper, Va."Met so many incredible people today. All so young, but so impactful, strong and brave," Ruffalo wrote on Tumblr. "Thank you for letting me [be] a part of this day in history. Keep fighting for what you believe in. We cannot normalize a world of hatred, racism and bigotry. I will be cheering you all on."The March to Confront White Supremacy began Monday in Charlottesville and was organized after far-right rallies spawned violence and death in the college town.
No mention, of course, in the Times of the far left violence wreaked there and subsequently elsewhere by Antifa.
According to the Culpeper Star Exponent, most locals didn’t even know about the sparsely-attended march, much less participate themselves. They were more concerned about the fact that the town's law enforcement was tied up escorting the marchers, at taxpayer expense:
“I’m for free speech, but I hate to see my tax money tied up for this,” said Culpeper bail bondsman Ronnie Lee, who watched the marchers pass from atop a road bank.For most of the day, there were more state police and VDOT personnel than marchers. Troopers from the Culpeper and Fairfax districts used 10 marked police cars, at least six unmarked cars and five motorcycles.
No word on how Ruffalo's fellow protesters felt about their sudden loss of star power.
