The European-American Unity and Rights Organization publicly demanded last week that those responsible for the six recent attacks of University students be charged with racial hate crimes.
City police have made 10 arrests as of last Fridayrelated to a series of attacks in residential areas near Grounds.
The first attack occurred in Sept. 2001, and the most recent assault took place Jan. 25.
Of those individuals charged, all are minors except for one 18-year-old. The ten arrested, all black and part of the Charlottesville school system, face charges ranging from robbery and malicious wounding to felonious assault.
EURO, a self-described white civil rights organization headed by former Ku Klux Klan Director David Duke, said the assaults qualify as hate crimes because they were racially motivated.
Prosecutors were reluctant to pursue the more severe hate crime charges because the assailants targeted students who appeared white, EURO's Virginia State President Ron Doggett said.
"There seems to be a national trend on the lack of enforcement of hate crimes when the victims are white," Doggett said.
Virginia code states that if a misdemeanor assault is racially motivated it is upgraded to a felony.
Prosecutors must exercise caution though, because most of the alleged perpetrators of the assaults are juveniles, Charlottesville Mayor Blake Caravati said.
Caravati and other city officials met with black community leaders Friday to discuss the assaults.
"This is our opportunity as a community to bridge this divide, caused by a long history of distrust," Caravati said.
EURO questioned the city's motives in meeting with black community leaders.
"It looks like to me they're dancing around worried about black political action and not the law," Doggett said.
Following the meeting, Caravati released a statement to address mounting community concern that the assaults may have been racially motivated.
"That has yet to be determined by the Commonwealth's Attorney and we are confident that he will proceed with this investigation in a very professional, thorough and fair manner," Caravati said in the statement.
EURO encouraged its supporters to contact city officials and rally for the cases to be prosecuted as hate crimes, resulting in a flood of phone calls, Doggett said.
"We're receiving a significant amount of contact from a variety of perspectives," Commonwealth's Attorney David Chapman said.
Chapman declined to comment on other aspects of the case except to say the matter still was under investigation.
Though EURO had not been in contact with any of the assault victims, they will continue to pursue legal options, including writing a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, Doggett said.
But city officials would not cave in to the pressure of EURO or similar groups, Caravati said.
"These outside groups that know nothing of our community, of this particular situation, of Virginia law, need to stay out," he said.
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