“It is the responsibility of law enforcement to ensure safety of both protesters and counter-protesters. The policing on Saturday was not effective in preventing violence. I was there and brought concerns directly to the secretary of public safety and the head of the Virginia State Police about the way that the barricades in the park limiting access by the arriving demonstrators and the lack of any physical separation of the protesters and counter-protesters on the street were contributing to the potential of violence. They did not respond. In fact, law enforcement was standing passively by, seeming to be waiting for violence to take place, so that they would have grounds to declare an emergency, declare an ‘unlawful assembly’ and clear the area.
Claire G. Gastanaga – ACLU of Virginia’s Executive Director.
OK people, I am trying Oh-So-Very-Hard not to put on the Tin Foil Hat. But when even the ACLU is pointing fingers at the local and state executive, you have to start wondering if it is really rats and not fuzzy hamsters.
It’s rats.
You did see the Craigslist ad for actors in Charlotte? “crowdsondemand.com”. The ad’s gone now. (I did a print to pdf, and I’m sure others have screen captures.)
Saw it, but waiting for a direct link between that and Charlottesville
You’re missing the “L” at the end of html on the link to BRM.
Fixed and thanks!
It’s not tin foil hat time. Terry McAulife wants to run for president. He is hip deep with the Clintons (ew!) and Obama. He’s going to favor the leftist protesters and try to get something bad to happen. They pulled the pro-statue protesters permit way before their planned event. The “right” wasn’t even there.
Did you hear he said the police did nothing because they were outgunned by the militia and intimidated? That’s right: one idiot runs over people with a car and McAulife blames it on the guns.
Actually, that statement pretty much puts paid to the gun-grabber dream of having police go around and collect guns from sullenly compliant owners, doesn’t it?
I expect there’s another reason beyond being able to summarily shut it all down; Keeping the sides apart makes it apparent who the violent ones really are.
One example of it was Portland, OR back in June. The police ignored the mayor, and kept the peace. The left got mad at being kept from their victims and so they attacked the police, resulting in the police having to shut down the left’s protest. All the while the free speech rally went on without issue. As a result, the media had to work overtime to weasel word the violence off the left and onto the right.
Fast forward to two weekends ago, and the free speech crowd was back, and this time the mayor found the right officials to implement his plan. The left were allowed to attack the free speech rally, and the ensuing fog of violence made a much easier time for the media to solely blame the right.
No doubt ‘correct’ thinking municipalities share their experiences on how to ‘best’ handle these events. So it didn’t surprise me to see something similar in Charlotesville.