'White Lives Matter' Banners Displayed In Danville

DANVILLE, CA — The mayor of Danville is speaking up after a group of people stood on a street corner proudly waving homemade banners that said “White Lives Matter” among other things over the weekend.

The people stood at Blackhawk Road and Camino Tassajara with masks on as they held their signs on Saturday.

Just like the anti-semitic flyers passed out in town in April, the group’s actions were deemed offensive but not illegal.

“Free speech is very painful and hurtful at times. We do not have to listen or give them any credibility,” Mayor Newell Arnerich said.

The banners were displayed on private property that was just outside of the town’s limits. Arnerich took a strong stance in response.

“Those responsible made sure to cowardly cover their faces and hide behind their signs. These people were acting out hate speech,” he said. “Though not a crime, this was clearly an abhorrent gesture towards people of color. People and groups like these are looking for confrontation and publicity, and we will not condone them nor give them any credibility, attention, or the publicity they are seeking.”

Arnerich said the town and the police department are working to make Danville a safe place that celebrates diversity, unlike the display seen here.

“The horrific mass shooting that took place this past weekend in Buffalo, New York, demonstrates the incredible division that exists in our country. The shooter, who is now in custody, posted a document prior to the mass shooting, centered on a far-right conspiracy theory that baselessly posits that the white population in western countries is being reduced or replaced by immigrants in a deliberate plot,” he said. “The shooter, in this case, will be taken out of society and imprisoned for life at the expense of ten innocent people. This price is too much to pay for simple justice for one prejudiced person's actions.”