dagblog - Comments for "State of emergency declared amid violence at Charlottesville's 'Unite the Right' rally"

Forget Trump; major backfire,

artappraiser — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 02:50:18 +0000

In reply to State of emergency declared amid violence at Charlottesville's 'Unite the Right' rally

Forget Trump; major backfire, bigly, historic, what others couldn't do:

Local Officials Call for Removal of Confederate Memorials After Charlottesville Violence

By Benjamin Hart @ Daily Intelligencer @ nymag.com, Aug.

In the aftermath of the deadly violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, local politicians in many cities and states issued calls to remove or destroy Confederate statues and memorials from public land [....]

In the Propublica piece,

Obey — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 14:09:34 +0000

In reply to Here is a roundup on the

In the Propublica piece, McAuliffe explicitly says "We planned for a long time for today’s incidents". So I'm guessing that means his office was involved.

Interesting also how McAuliffe disassociates Fields from the White Supremacists, as if they had nothing to do with one another.

“You saw the militia walking down the street, you would have thought they were an army ... I was just talking to the State Police upstairs; [the militia members] had better equipment than our State Police had,” McAuliffe said. “And yet not a shot was fired, zero property damage.”

McAuliffe's response that law enforcement's handling of the violence was successful because there were no bullets fired and "zero property damage" would appear to ignore that dozens were left injured and a 32-year-old woman, Heather Heyer, was killed when an apparent white supremacist plowed his car into a crowd.

McAuliffe, for his part, suggested that Heyer's death couldn't have been prevented.

“You can’t stop some crazy guy who came here from Ohio and used his car as a weapon. He is a terrorist,” he said.

In other words, they stand by the policy of letting the White Supremacists beat up counter-protesters without resttraint, on the basis of the justification that they are better armed than the police. And all this death and bloodshed on the counter-protestors side is called "success" by a Democratic governor.

Incredible. Law enforcement won't protect people from Nazis. And this is now openly declared policy. That physical disengagement on the part of police is just as bad as Trump's non-statement. And is actually more worrying to me.

It will be interesting to see how Antifa now reacts to this state of affairs.

Edit to add

"Folks, you can start a riot in VA if you're well armed and we can't do shit! I don't know why I'm saying this out loud! Come here & kill!"
— David Numberman (@StuntBirdArmy) August 14, 2017

Yes, not sure how this plays

Obey — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 13:59:24 +0000

In reply to If Black Lives Matter showed

Yes, not sure how this plays out for future counter-demonstrations.

Thanks for the update, C

artappraiser — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 13:34:30 +0000

In reply to So ,just FYI, my son was able

Thanks for taking the time to update, C'Ville; I can't imagine the anxiety you must have had.

Here is a roundup on the

artappraiser — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 13:31:39 +0000

In reply to Police stayed away because

Here is a roundup on the police response issue @ Business Insider with a link to a good ProPublica piece at the end which comes from a reporter who was there

Most criticism by other law enforcement seems to be that they didn't appear to do much in advance to corral the groups.

I caught a clip of McAuliffe's defense of police work on CNN TV, I think it was from the evening press conference. It seemed to me to be quite impassioned, beyond standard blather to show support for police. He seemed to take offense at the criticism. So much so that I thought maybe his office had input in the planning. Although that also could be because he had just had to deal with the families of the officers who died in the helicopter crash.

If Black Lives Matter showed

rmrd0000 — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 12:32:59 +0000

In reply to Police stayed away because

If Black Lives Matter showed up with weapons, the State Police and National Guard would have responded with armored vehicles.

Police stayed away because

Obey — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 09:23:36 +0000

In reply to There appears to have been a

Police stayed away because they felt outgunned. Via NYT:

"Governor McAuliffe fiercely defended the police in an impromptu sidewalk interview, noting that many of the demonstrators were armed, and saying the officers had done “great work” in a “very delicate situation.” And he said Ms. Heyer’s death, which he called “car terrorism,” could not have been prevented."

In the news most of the focus

ocean-kat — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 06:08:36 +0000

In reply to State of emergency declared amid violence at Charlottesville's 'Unite the Right' rally

In the news most of the focus is on the violence. But if there was no violence. If no one had died. Still the president should have rejected the support of the white supremacists. He should have repudiated the racism and antisemitism. They weren't using dog whistles. It wasn't couched in a way that could plausibly be denied. The racism and antisemitism was overt and blatant. The Nazi regalia was everywhere. And they repeatedly invoked Trump as their leader and claimed he supported them. Due to the violence and especially the intentional hit and run into the crowd Trump was forced to respond. Yet even then he wouldn't reject and repudiate the white supremacists. When even if there was no violence he should have clearly and unequivocally spoken out against them

Glad you taught him to be

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 05:32:54 +0000

In reply to So ,just FYI, my son was able

Glad you taught him to be quick on his toes. Best of luck/speedy recovery for the rest

Thanks, was concerned when

NCD — Mon, 14 Aug 2017 04:14:30 +0000

In reply to So ,just FYI, my son was able

Thanks, was concerned when you didn't report back on him. His presence, and all there opposing the racists, showed the worst among us cannot terrorize a community with impunity.

Hopfully the 5 critically injured will make a full recovery.