Confirmed: Police Told to Stand Down in Charlottesville—Did Nothing as War Broke Out
The ACLU confirmed late Saturday that police were given stand-down orders in Charlottesville. This invited violence and only fueled the chaos.
By Matt Agorist
TheFreeThoughtProject.com
August 13, 2017
Charlottesville, VA — The events that unfolded in Charlottesville, Virginia this Saturday were tragic, hateful, insidious and even deadly. Saturday will go down in history as the day America’s hate reared its ugly face and proved to the world that this country is being divided — to be conquered. Adding fuel to the fire of hatred and violence were politicians who told police not to intervene and allowed the unchecked carnage to unfold before their eyes.
The stand down was confirmed by the ACLU who quoted a police source saying, “We’ll not intervene until given command to do so.”
This command never came.
There is no shortage of violent footage of clashes between neo-nazi white supremacists and counter protesters from Antifa and the like. Multiple violent battles raged on for several minutes as blood spilled onto the streets of this college town. Only several feet away were police officers — who did nothing to stop it.
As ProPublica reports:
It was a scene that played out over and over in Charlottesville as law enforcement confronted the largest public gathering of white supremacists in decades. We walked the streets beginning in the early morning hours and repeatedly witnessed instances in which authorities took a largely laissez faire approach, allowing white supremacists and counter-protesters to physically battle.
Officials in Charlottesville had publicly promised to maintain control of the “Unite the Right” rally, which is the latest in a series of chaotic and bloody racist rallies that have roiled this college town, a place deeply proud of its links to Thomas Jefferson and the origins of American Democracy.
But the white supremacists who flooded into the city’s Emancipation Park — a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee sits in the center of the park — had spent months openly planning for war. The Daily Stormer, a popular neo-Nazi website, encouraged rally attendees to bring shields, pepper spray, and fascist flags and flagpoles. A prominent racist podcast told its listeners to come carrying guns. “Bring whatever you need, that you feel you need for your self defense. Do what you need to do for security of your own person,” said Mike “Enoch” Peinovich on The Right Stuff podcast.
And the white supremacists who showed up in Charlottesville did indeed come prepared for violence. Many wore helmets and carried clubs, medieval-looking round wooden shields, and rectangular plexiglass shields, similar to those used by riot police.
Clad in a black, Nazi-style helmet, Matthew Heimbach told ProPublica, “We’re defending our heritage.” Heimbach, who heads the Traditionalist Workers Party, a self-declared fascist group, said he was willing to die for his cause and would do whatever it took to defend himself. He was surrounded by a brigade of white supremacists, including members of the League of the South and the National Socialist Movement.
The Rest…HERE
