The Red Wings condemned the use of their logo during a weekend white nationalist rally in Charlottesville and are exploring possible legal action.
The big national story of the weekend was the white nationalist rally held in Charlottesville, Va. – and the Detroit Red Wings unfortunately found themselves in the middle of it .
As visuals circulated all over social media of people marching with logos, flags and regalia, several photos and videos appeared of marchers with a modified version of the Red Wings logo slapped onto their shields and flags.
The Red Wings made clear they were not involved and quickly condemned the use of the logo – “We are exploring every possible legal action as it pertains to the misuse of our logo in this disturbing demonstration, ” their statement said.
But why were white nationalists using the logo in the first place?
The reasoning for that is still not totally clear. But our story Saturday by Helene St. James, Perry A. Farrell and John Wisely explains a possibility:
In addition, there was a post on YouTube by an account called “Detroit Right Wings” on Aug. 5 that describes itself as a “participant in regular activism related to the cause of preserving our people.” The post has since been taken down due to YouTube’s policy on hate speech.
On that post, there was a link to a GoFundMe page that sought to raise money for the group to attend the Charlottesville rally. It had raised $328 as of early Saturday.
Other than those references, however, there is no registered corporation in Michigan under the “Detroit Right Wings” name and no known paperwork trail relating to the group.
As you can see in this tweet, the main difference between the Red Wings logo and the logo used by marchers Saturday is inside the wheel.
The “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville was in response to the removal of a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. One person was killed and at least 19 injured after a car drove into a crowd of protesters, hours after a state of emergency was declared due to the event.
Helene St. James, Perry A. Farrell, John Wisely and USA TODAY contributed to this report.
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