RICHMOND, Va. — A federal judge ordered a white nationalist group and some of its members to pay hundreds of thousands in punitive damages after defacing a mural of Arthur Ashe in Richmond in 2021.
Patriot Front, its leader — Thomas Rousseau — and members William Ring and Jacob Brown are ordered to pay over $470,000 for defacing the mural in Battery Park.
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Mural of Arthur Ashe in Richmond park defaced
The mural, by Richmond artist Hamilton Glass, honored the tennis legend and humanitarian in the very park where he learned to play the sport.
The lawsuit was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia in 2022 by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on behalf of residents of Battery Park, a majority-Black neighborhood.
“This is a victory for justice and for accountability against hate," said Len Kamdang, director of the Criminal Justice Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "The ruling sends a strong message: Attacks on Black people and the communities they live in will not go unchecked. Being ordered to pay damages is only part of why the ruling is so important. The judge’s decision will bolster efforts to disrupt these networks and prevent future attacks.”
Patriot Front, founded by Rousseau in 2017, calls for the formation of a white ethnostate and is known to vandalize property with their logo and stickers.
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