Christian Yingling and George Curbelo Respond To Charlottesville

Christian Yingling of the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia:

“In regards to the lawsuit filed by the city of Charlottesville in in respect to more specifically, the 32 man militia team commanded by myself (Christian Yingling, Commanding Officer – Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia) and George Curbelo (Commanding Officer – New York Light Foot Militia).

On August 12th, 2017, Myself and George Curbelo commanded a team in conjunction with the Virginia Minuteman Militia (under Commanding Officer Eugene Wells), to provide security at an event entitled “Unite the Right” in Charlottesville Virginia. We had one goal, and one goal only in being there. That goal was to ensure that all people attending said rally had the opportunity to exercise their first amendment rights to free speech and to gather peacefully without fear of violent reprial from the other side. The press, and the city of Charlottesville have since then, tried to blame us for their unwillingness to get involved throughout the course of the day. Their inaction ultimately led to one woman’s death and countless injuries. They have also falsely accused us of working with the alt right to plan the event, and said we were there strictly to protect the alt right; neither of those accusations are even remotely close to being the truth.

I want to state unequivocally, that while we did in fact not contact the city council itself, we did have multiple phone conversations with Charlottesville police well ahead of our arrival in their city. They knew full well we were coming, and they knew full well we were going to be armed, and what exactly we were going to be armed with. We are fully prepared to provide the phone records to demonstrate that fact since they are now trying to say we had no contact with them. Even though it has been well documented (via photo/video) the Charlottesville Police department escorted us personally to the park. This was arranged well before we arrived in Charlottesville.

While there, our team acted strictly as a neutral peace keeping force, and did not take sides in any fashion. We helped people on both sides while we were repeatedly assaulted by both sides. Our team acted as complete professionals in every capacity, helping the injured, and breaking up fights while trying to keep the two sides separated. Both sides came armed with various weapons and both sides came to fight, no questions asked. Even in that chaotic environment, not one of our people drew or raised a weapon, or intimidated or assaulted anyone in any way shape or form.

Now the city of Charlottesville seeks to unconstitutionally, try to keep us from their city even though it was the state of Virginia’s own laws that allowed us to be armed that day, and the Charlottesville police told us it was perfectly fine for us to be there, and perfectly legal for us to be armed. To fight this, we will be taking multiple steps to address this issue. I will not go into those steps now, but rest assured once we take said steps, it will be made full public knowledge of our course of action.

We intend to continue this fight as long as needed to ensure the citizen’s right to aid their local law enforcement in keeping the peace at future events. We will also be taking the necessary steps to see that those who are truly to blame for the horrors we experienced that day are held accountable, both criminally and financially, to the fullest extent of the law. Thank you.

Christian J.Yingling
Commanding Officer – Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia”

George Curbelo of the New York Light Foot Militia:

“PLEASE SHARE
City of Charlottesville Lawsuit
NY Light Foot Militia Official Statement

The Light Foot Militia and it’s commanders George Curbelo of the NY Light Foot and Christian Yingling of the PA Light Foot, named in the Law Suit by the of the city of Charlottesville, welcome the opportunity to reveal the truth of why the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville VA on Aug 12, 2017 became violent. Our testimony will be from our experiences on Market St on the southern end of Emancipation Park. Our experiences are a telling example of what a political agenda can do to Law Enforcement, the intended peacekeepers. The Light Foot Militia and its affiliate group members were in Charlottesville as a neutral peacekeeping force. Our experiences as peacekeepers was recognized by local citizens as their testimonies and gratitude for our presence were openly shared with us as we solved one altercation after another until the violence become overwhelming and impossible to manage with only 32 men and women. The one common question that we were asked by the general public was, “Why aren’t the Police doing anything about this?” At 11:40 am, Law Enforcement gave me the instruction to remove our Militia off the street because they were going to shut the event down. Only after 2 hrs of violence did police finally take action in the form of riot control. Crowd control was not their job as I was told by 2 different Virginia state police. These statements can be verified by other Militia members. This lawsuit is an attempt by the City mayor and chief of police to divert their culpability to the only peacekeepers on the ground in Charlottesville on 8/12 and typical to a liberal progressive agenda. Their solution is never to take blame for their own mistakes but to restrict the rights of law abiding citizens. In conclusion and again we say WE LOOK FORWARD TO THE OPPORTUNITY TO POINT THE FAULT FOR THE VIOLENCE TO THOSE THAT ARE TRULY CULPABLE, NEGLEGANT AND WORTHY OF THE FULL RATH OF THE LEGAL SYSTEM.

George Curbelo
State Commander
NY Light Foot Militia
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