Thread: An Exclusive Look at How Virginia Police Emptied Emancipation Park

This entire article is a must read (pictures of park included)....

An Exclusive Look at How Virginia Police Emptied Emancipation Park
By Phillip Stucky Published on August 16, 2017
https://stream.org/exclusive-look-vi...cipation-park/

Virginia State Police cleared Emancipation Park Saturday after a white nationalist demonstration turned violent, but the action forced attendees into a crowd of counter-protesters.

The rally was organized as a protest to the ordered removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee in downtown Charlottesville, Va. The rally was named the "Unite the Right" rally, but attendees largely identified as white nationalists or white supremacists when asked by reporters on the ground. Both Black Lives Matter and then Antifa declared they would bring members to Charlottesville to protest the rally, setting up a showdown between the two groups.

The white nationalists applied for a permit from City Hall, and originally obtained a permit for McIntire Park, a location roughly a mile and a half away from the statue. But white supremacist Richard Spencer declared that the group would meet at the much smaller Emancipation Park, the home of the famed Lee statue. City Hall approved the permit Friday evening.

Protesters on both sides roundly criticized police behavior, but police officials say they did the best with the resources they were given. The Daily Caller News Foundation provides an exclusive look into what steps the police took in their effort to clear the park, based on accounts from reporters on the ground.

The call for police assistance echoed through the streets until police took control of the downtown area after a car slammed into a group of protestors Saturday afternoon. Several protesters cited the lack of a police presence as they tried to get help for their injured.

"Where are the police?" One Antifa protester said in the crowd. "I don't see any police here!"

"The police actually allowed us to square off against each other," a Black Lives Matter protester told CNN. "There were fights and the police were standing a block away the entire time. It's almost as if they wanted us to fight each other.".....