The Charlottesville City Council, City Manager and Police Chief have been tearing themselves apart with blame shifting as citizens demand accountability for the passive behavior of the police force that appeared to “stand down” as the white supremacist rally on Aug. 12 spiraled out of control. Nexus Caridades Attorneys Inc., an Augusta County law firm focusing on social justice issues, announced its intention to file suit against the city for failing to intervene. And at a town hall meeting last week, a crowd of some 300 gathered to vent social justice concerns and lacerate city officials for their failure to prevent the violence.
So, it was with particular interest that I read the Richmond Times-Dispatch article today explaining how the Charlottesville police had changed its tactics during the Aug. 12 rally after receiving a similarly blistering criticism from the social-justice set for its “militarized response” to a a previous KKK rally on July 8.
In the smaller July rally, which never received much attention outside Charlottesville because no one was injured or killed, the KKK presence protesting the remove of the Robert E. Lee statue had prompted a counter rally. As Ned Oliver and Graham Moomaw described the event:
Police officers outfitted with riot helmets and shields formed two lines, parting the sea of anti-racist protesters to create a path for the Klan. After the KKK rally was over, riot police formed up to disperse protesters lingering in the road, eventually firing three tear gas canisters to force the crowd to leave.
Notably, there were no deaths or injuries in July. But that didn’t prevent a storm of outrage among the social justice warriors. Activists and residents berated Council at its next meeting. Writes the T-D:
“We have profound concerns with the militarized law enforcement presence on July 8, with police wearing riot gear, driving armored vehicles and carrying weapons typically reserved for war zones,” said Mary Bauer, the executive director of the LegalAid Justice Center and one of a dozen speakers to criticize the city’s handling of the KKK rally.
“We ask the city to acknowledge that this choice to use these kinds of tactics instead of planning for de-escalation is inconsistent with Charlottesville’s values and good policing. …
At the same meeting activist Jalane Schmidt handed [Mayor Mike] Signer an emptied tear gas canister she said had been launched at her during the really. “You dropped something, councilor,” she said. … “This has to stop, this militarization of the police. When there’s militarization, the inevitable result is violence. To a hammer, everything’s a nail.”
And to a social justice warrior, everything’s a cause for outrage. No matter what the police do, they’re wrong.
As it turns out, the Charlottesville police appear to have taken the criticisms to heart. They did not gear up for a riot. They did not physically separate the white supremacists from the anarchists. They did not intervene until the rally descended into chaos. The result: a couple dozen people were injured and a young woman died.
So, the list of parties who bear a share of the blame for the disastrous outcome on Aug. 12 gets ever longer. First and foremost, we can blame the mostly out-of-state white supremacists for organizing the rally, spewing bile, acting in a deliberately provocative manner, and coming ready to rumble. Secondly, we can blame the Leftist anarchists who came to town spoiling for a fight — and giving the white supremacists someone to rumble with. Thirdly, we can blame the non-violent social justice warriors for creating the political conditions that caused the police to back away from its previously successful strategy. And fourthly, we can blame the city officials who, despite an explicit warning from the Department of Homeland Security that both the far Right and far Left were gearing up for a violent confrontation, cravenly capitulated to the demands of the social justice crew.
Welcome to Virginia in the 21st century.
