CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia — Christopher Cantwell’s lawyer says his client’s comments disparaging blacks and Jews is just a comedic act of a “shock jock,” comparing him to the Jewish comedian Jackie Mason.
The claim was made during a four-hour bail hearing for Cantwell on Thursday night. Cantwell faces three felony charges stemming from an incident at the University of Virginia on Aug. 11, in which he pepper-sprayed at least two people during a torchlight procession of hundreds of white supremacists who chanted Nazi slogans. The conflict was captured on camera and broadcast in a now-famous Vice News documentary.
Cantwell, a New Hampshire resident, hosts an online white-supremacist radio show called Radical Agenda and has become a well-known figure in the so-called “alt right.” He was invited to the Aug. 12 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville as a speaker, but didn’t after the event turned into a riot in which Heather Heyer was killed.
Cantwell was initially…
