LOS ANGELES, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Senators of the U.S. state of California will hold a series of public hearings next month to probe the rise of white supremacy in the state following the recent unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, the State Senate leader said on Monday.
In a statement, Kevin de Leon asked the chairs of the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management and the Senate Public Safety Committee to convene public hearings next month to review the safeguards and procedures in place in order to avoid violent conflict at future white supremacist demonstrations or events.
"We don't want it to repeat itself again in our great state of California," he said, citing statistics that suggest the number of hate crimes is hiking in the country and the state.
He condemned the violence in Charlottesville which has left one woman killed and 19 others injured.
"The cowardly attack that claimed Heather Heyer's life was an attack on America - on all of us - our values, and the promise we strive to achieve," De Leon said. "And the hateful ideology that fueled that attack is a cancer on our nation. These issues cut to the heart of our society; our response will show what kind of nation we want to be."
On Aug. 12, a rally staged by white nationalists in Charlottesville turned violent. After hours of brawls between the pro-rally far-right figures and anti-racism protesters, a sport car plowed into crowds against the rally, killing 32-year-old Heyer and injuring 19 others.
White supremacists claimed they would organize rallies in San Francisco on Saturday and Sunday. California officials have requested the National Park Service to rescind a previously issued permit for the event.
On Monday, the local Sacramento Bee newspaper displayed a video on its website, showing at least 10 people were hurt, five of them stabbed, at a chaotic, bloody neo-Nazi rally at California's Capitol Park in Sacramento on June 26, 2016.
