There are big parts of the Charlottesville riots that we’re not being told. Anyone else notice that?
Sorry I’m still harping on this. I’d hoped to find a less tin-foil-hat explanation. God knows the riots were confusing, there were a lot of stories, and so on. I waited for the news to finally catch up, digging into all the open questions. And I wanted. It’s been a week now, and we’ve gotten very little explanation. I have to assume that’s all we get.
There are still big holes in the story we’ve been given.
First, of course, this shouldn’t have happened at all. American police have lots of collective experience managing demonstrations by unpopular groups. Did Virginia forget how to do it? I’m pretty sure there are standards and techniques that don’t include packing antagonist groups together.
It’s not like the authorities were taken by surprise. The white supremacists applied for permits for that place and time. Everyone expected there would be trouble, too. On Friday, Governor Terry McAuliffe (D) wrote that state police, local police, national guard, and “other public safety officials” were on standby.
The first problems happened the night before the main event. Hundreds of torch-carrying white supremacists marched through the University of Virginia campus, chanting “Jews will not replace us,” “White lives matter,” and other fun catchphrases as they marched to a Thomas Jefferson memorial.
No obvious police presence. Maybe the staties thought it was a really, really big cookout?
It didn’t surprise the counter-protestors. They circled the Jefferson statue, linked arm-in-arm, to deny them access. Still no obvious police presence in the pictures. Maybe the counter-protestors took the police by surprise, dozens of antifa (anti-fascist) counter-protestors tiptoeing up around the statue without anyone seeing? Sneaky bastards!
I didn’t see any official pictures. That seems odd, too. Weren’t police there at all? If so, you’d think they’d have video running. All I see are shaky cell-phone videos.
Quick question: imagine Nazis and KKK marchers meet counter-protestors linked arm-in-arm, trying to deny them access to the Jefferson statue. Who here thinks the counter-protestors suddenly let go of each other and, in a coordinated move, rushed the hundreds of prepared and heavily armed white-power goons with violence in their antifa hearts?
Me neither, but nobody was surprised when it turned violent. Police finally declared the white-power march an unlawful assembly and waded in, but not before lots of punches, pepper spray, and so on.
And Tiki torches. Lots of impromptu Tiki clubbing. My future visits to Home Depot will never be the same.
A side note on pepper spray. Police say it wasn’t them. We saw the white-power people using pepper spray the next day. Officially, police have no conclusion.
And then it was Saturday. According to the reports, everyone gets to the site early, except maybe the police. Again, groups are not kept separate. Things get violent. Lots more shaky cell phone videos; no official video, no images of police. The police even have a helicopter in the air, but no pictures from there I can find, either.
I’ve heard reports that police surrounded the park on three of four sides, boxing people in, but only keeping a minimal presence inside the park. That presence dropped to zero at some point, when the police were ordered to withdraw. I’ve read from several police members who objected to the decision, but no official explanation. (Anyone with better, drop a link in a comment.)
I’ve heard many counter-protestors talk about what happened next. The violent and armed white-power groups began attacking the non-violent counter-protestors. Many people said they literally feared for their lives, and credit the antifa with trying to protect them from club-wielding Nazis, skinheads, KKK and the rest. We’ve all seen the amateur videos.
Still no police pictures.
Police declare an unlawful assembly at 11:32 AM, and finally move in. Fighting reportedly has spread to the streets. At 11:52 AM, Gov. McAuliffe declares a state of emergency, and UVa shuts down roughly one minute later. Trump tweets something anodyne at 1:19 PM. Most of the white-power demonstrators are off the street. At 1:42 PM a car plows into a crowd of counter-protestors, killing a woman and injuring a couple dozen.
Around 3 PM, Trump issues his statement condemning hate, pointedly blaming “many sides” in an ad hoc addition. Trump repeated the phrase, enunciating carefully, just in case we’d missed it the first time.
Around 5 PM, the police helicopter crashed, killing two troopers. Most news sources focus on this event first, conflating it with the riots. While the deaths are as sad as anyone’s violent end, helicopters are inherently dangerous. The crash wasn’t ’caused’ by the riots in any truthful sense. That same afternoon, two US military personnel were killed in a (different) helicopter crash in Afghanistan. That crash was not as widely reported.
Where were the police? They were responsible for crowd control, and one of the key parts of handling events like this is you separate people who really hate each other. You know? I wasn’t there, so if someone has better information, drop a comment, but I only saw rioters and counter-protesters in the pictures. No state police, no local cops, no Virginia National Guard, not so much as a dog catcher.
Maybe I’m spoiled. I live in Washington DC, where protests are pretty routine. Not that some police don’t make mistakes, but they’re generally professional and competent. They separate potentially violent groups, limit the risks, create clearly defined and protected lines around both protest and counter-protest areas, usually reinforced with temporary barriers, and all the stuff. People can shout whatever they want — kinda the point — but no touching, throwing, stabbing, pikes, clubs, pepper spray, medieval shields, body armor, flame-throwers, etc.
Not in Charlottesville. Maybe they put up barriers I didn’t see? Maybe there were police between the groups? Anyone who knows more, please let me know. The pictures I see are all cell phone things. I don’t see any official pictures, which again, is deeply suspicious.
So what happened? From here, it almost sounds like Virginia was inviting the Nazis and KKK to attack innocent people. And now we have Trump and his white-power supporters saying ‘both sides were violent’.
Where were the police? Where was the press? Where’s the reporting? Still living in WTF-land.
