Houston mayor: Time to 'draw a red line' on hate groups

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Sunday, August 13, 2017
Houston mayor: Time to draw 'red line' on hate groups
Mayor Sylvester Turner said hate has no place in Houston.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said when it comes to hate groups, this is not the time for local leaders to mince words.

The mayor's remarks came just one day after police said a 20-year-old man killed a woman and hurt 19 others as he rammed his car into counter protesters at a white nationalist rally in Virginia.

"Now is the time more than ever, now is the time, especially as leaders at our level to draw a red line," Turner said. "When it comes to Nazi groups, when it comes to the KKK, when it comes to the white supremacists and white nationalism...we cannot be ambiguous."

Turner focused in on the dramatic images we've seen in Charlottesville while giving out jazz music scholarships to students at the Mayor's Jazz Brunch at the Wortham Center.

The mayor encouraged elected officials here to make a transparent message that anti-minority groups will not be allowed to divide the city.

The message comes upon news that a former Bellaire High School student was injured in Saturday's violence in Virginia.

A woman says her 20-year-old daughter was hit by the driver in a deadly car attack in Virginia yesterday.

Police identify suspect in Virginia car ramming

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