Charlottesville riot anniversary party

Post Reply New Topic

Law enforcement officials in two U.S. cities are aiming to avoid a repeat of the violence that erupted a year ago in Charlottesville, Va.

“There seemed to be confusion as to who had authority to respond in a certain way,” RaShall Brackney, the new Charlottesville Police Chief, said at a July 12 community briefing. “We have a very clear, a very clear understanding from the top…as to what the expectations are, and the expectations are that there will not be the type of violence that occurred in this community that occurred last year.”

Charlottesville officials expect crowds to assemble for commemorative events around the city, but they haven't granted any permits for Market Street Park, the site of last year’s contentious “Unite the Right” rally. The organizer, Jason Kessler, withdrew a permit request to hold an anniversary event there and, instead, is urging followers to attend what he is calling “Unite the Right 2” in Washington, D.C. on Sunday.

Heads of agencies involved in protecting Charlottesville this weekend said they're preparing for any civil disturbances or unrest.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and the City of Charlottesville declared States of Emergency Wednesday, a move which allocates $2 million for response efforts and permits assistance from the Virginia National Guard.

Law enforcement personnel there will be operating under a Unified Command, made up of leaders from the Charlottesville Police Department, the Virginia State Police and the Charlottesville Fire Department. Officials from those agencies have declined to say how many officers will be active in Charlottesville during the weekend, but Virginia State Police Captain Craig Worsham said officers from his agency will be “very present.”

Brackney cautioned, however, law breakers aren't likely to heed city ordinances.

“Law breakers do not care about our ordinances, they don’t care about our legislation, they don’t care about statutes. Otherwise, they wouldn’t do the things that they do anyway,” Brackney said.

In Washington, D.C., the National Park Service approved Kessler’s anniversary event application for Lafayette Park, which is directly across the street from the North side of the White House

According to Kessler’s permit application, he expects a crowd of approximately 400 people. A National Park Service spokesperson said Wednesday that though Kessler’s application was approved, the permit is still pending. Multiple permits were requested for counter demonstrations set to be held elsewhere in the District.

The United States Park Police, United States Secret Service, the National Park Service, Metro Transit Police, and DC Metropolitan Police are all involved in securing the event.

“We intend to have the entire police department engaged to make sure that we handle this," MPD Chief of Police Peter Newsham said at a news conference.

Party? It was a TERRORIST ATTACK committed by vile reich wingers.

This whole story makes me so sad. Not only for the woman who was killed, but for the sorry state of race relations in America. Disenfranchised white losers resent the gains in finances and career that people who don't look like them have made, and they try to create a new Nazi movement. It makes me very sad that they have had some success.

I do buy into the notion of the heroic counter demonstrators fighting facism. The Nazis are worse then Antifa because the Nazis want to kill me while Antifa “ only” wants to violently take away my right to free speech. But we are discussing degrees of vileness.