According to 8 News Now, three family members were arrested and charged in Nevada in connection with a fight that went viral. In the fight, a Black man said that the other people used a racist word and said, “They have a hanging tree.”
Police in Storey County say that Gary Miller is charged with breach of peace, Janis Miller is charged with battery, and Tiffany Miller is charged with blocking and delaying a peace officer. People saw Ricky Johnson getting angry with his family while he was working at the Hot August Nights classic car event in Virginia City, Nevada.
Johnson began making the video that is now going popular after he said that someone had made racist comments about him.
People saw Miller give Johnson the middle finger, and Johnson asked Miller to say it again. “And where is the tree where people can be hung?” Where is that? “Where is the tree that hangs?” You can hear Johnson say.
Gary Miller says, “In the backyard” in the video that went viral.
In a statement, Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford said that the racist sentiments were wrong and that hate has no place in the state.
“This kind of hate doesn’t follow the values we hold dear here in Nevada, and it shouldn’t be tolerated,” Ford said. “I’m proud to be a Nevadan, and so are the people who work for me and live all over the state, including those who live in and around Virginia City.” Nevada has a lot of different kinds of people from all walks of life, and I know that we are all friendly and open.
A lot of people, including Gov. Joe Lombardo, have been worried about cases of mimicking, so he told them to speak out. Ford said, “I encourage others to do the same and condemn the racism shown in the video.”
“I am worried and upset about what happened in Virginia City this weekend.” He said in a statement on X, “Hate and racism have no place in Nevada. This behavior must be condemned in the strongest terms possible.” “Our history is full of different kinds of people, and we’ll always be a place where everyone is welcome.”
The city of Virginia City is not far from Reno. A lot of tourists visit the old mining town every year to walk along the wood-planked sidewalks that are lined with old shops and saloons. Johnson, who is from Houston and was in town to collect signatures for a Nevada ballot measure that would limit attorney fees, said that the whole thing bothers him. He told the Associated Press, “I still shake every time I think about it.”
