Hugged & Shoved: hugging protester says she was roughed up by city police

At Saturday's Klan Rally Protest, Charlottesville resident Heather Rose Ratesic Dorsey, who was there to protest the Klan, gave one of the state troopers guarding an entrance way for the Klan a hug (see photo left).

"I have always been taught to respect everyone and I am sure that they needed more than a hug at that point," says Dorsey.

About an hour later, however, after the Klan had left, Dorsey was shoved to the ground by a city cop (number 67) while standing on the north sidewalk of High Street.

"I wasn't doing anything when someone behind me stepped on my flip flop," she says. " I turned around, it was a cop. I asked him to get off my shoe and he grabbed my arm and threw me to the ground."

She suffered wounds to her arm (see photo right), had her flip-flop broken, and was treated and released at MedExpress. Dorsey says a city police sergeant came to her house that night to take pictures and file a report.

Dorsey says she'll turn in a required handwritten complaint form on Monday, and pursue things from there. But the experience has rattled her in confusing ways. She says the photo of her hugging the trooper cause some unexpected backlash. Liberal FB friends called her a racist for hugging the trooper and unfriended her.

"I wasn't there for a fight," says Dorsey. "My emotions are all over the place. It's like a nightmare to be honest."