I'm not a fan of reading Politico, but I've seen this topic in other articles and this is a good one, although long. The last paragraph is very true. The City Council had a 3-hr closed meeting last week. Now I've read documents were leaked only revealed in the meeting. Charlottesville - from Mayor, police, city manager - is a big mess right now.
Virginia received DHS warning before Charlottesville rally
By Josh Meyer | Politico.com | August 29, 2017The Department of Homeland Security issued a confidential warning to law enforcement authorities three days before the deadly Aug. 12 Charlottesville protest rally, saying that an escalating series of clashes had created a powder keg that would likely make the event “among the most violent to date” between white supremacists and anarchists.
The “law enforcement sensitive” assessment, obtained by POLITICO and reported for the first time, raises questions about whether Charlottesville city and Virginia state authorities dropped the ball before, and during, a public event that was widely expected to draw huge crowds of armed, emotional and antagonistic participants from around the country.
The Aug. 9 report by the DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis was done in coordination with local, state and federal authorities at the Virginia Fusion Center. It stated that white supremacists and anti-fascist “antifa” extremists had clashed twice before in Charlottesville, at a white nationalist rally on May 13 and a Ku Klux Klan gathering July 7. At each event, “anarchist extremists” attacked protesters who had been issued permits, leading to fights, injuries, arrests and at least two felony charges of assault and battery.
[...]
Last week, the Charlottesville City Council demanded that Jones provide an explanation for the “apparent unwillingness of officers to directly intervene during overt assaults captured in many videos,” according to The Washington Post.
More at link:
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/08/2 ... ity-242140