Police Stood By As Mayhem Mounted in Charlottesville

[babylonsister]

Police Stood By As Mayhem Mounted in Charlottesville

State police and National Guardsmen watched passively for hours as self-proclaimed Nazis engaged in street battles with counter-protesters. ProPublica reporter A.C. Thompson was on the scene and reports that the authorities turned the streets of the city over to groups of militiamen armed with assault rifles.

by A.C. Thompson and Robert Faturechi, ProPublica, and Karim Hajj, special to ProPublica, Aug. 12, 2017, 11 p.m.


CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — There was nothing haphazard about the violence that erupted today in this bucolic town in Virginia’s heartland. At about 10 a.m. today, at one of countless such confrontations, an angry mob of white supremacists formed a battle line across from a group of counter-protesters, many of them older and gray-haired, who had gathered near a church parking lot. On command from their leader, the young men charged and pummeled their ideological foes with abandon. One woman was hurled to the pavement, and the blood from her bruised head was instantly visible.

Standing nearby, an assortment of Virginia State Police troopers and Charlottesville police wearing protective gear watched silently from behind an array of metal barricades — and did nothing.

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.

more...

https://www.propublica.org/article/police-stood-by-as-mayhem-mounted-in-charlottesville

[Raster]

1. Shame! Shame! Shame!

[obamanut2012]

2. For God's sake, Cville is not a "bucolic town"

It is a dynamic and diverse historic college town.

And, I had friends there yesterday, and they said the Nazis were allowed to do what they want, and had cattle prods, and were also beating folks with rifle butts. The Cville PD cannot handle something like this, and the VANG is full of wingnuts, but they and the VASP need to be investigated.

Some of those dudes looked like NG because of how they were dressed -- and why were only five or arrested??????

[rufus dog]

8. I was watching early and was disappointed

It should have been shock, but that suggests no preconceived ideas. Anyway, the Nazis were heavily armed, and no police were in view. Then they had scuffles in a parking lot, Nazis hitting a black guy, using poles, they get outside the lot and it was the lot for the police station. The cops were standing right next door and looked like their only concern was to protect the police station.

Here is the big issue as I see it, decisions were made on how to handle this demonstration, it was not ad hoc, the highest levels had to be in the process. And as a group they decided to stand down and allow the Nazi's to terrorize the city. 100% unacceptable and those at the highest level need to answer for their decisions.

[tblue37]

9. In 2006 the FBI warned that white supremacists were deliberately infiltrating law enforcement:

http://thegrio.com/2015/05/12/fbi-white-supremacists-law-enforcement/

[LSFL]

3. The PDs all over the country are full

Of white supremacists. Not all cops are racist by any means but they seldom call one another out on behavior.
They have an us against them attitude that leads to condoning questionable acts and turning a blind eye to racism.

[Lee-Lee]

17. That's not even remotely accurate and is a statement intended just to divide

[LSFL]

19. we are all entitled to our opinions informed by our experiences

When the norm becomes convictions for cops who kill, then I might reconsider my opinion.

[RandomAccess]

21. I'm with you. See my other post.

[RandomAccess]

20. Truer than you'd like to think --

White Supremacists Are Taking Over Police Departments Across America

The FBI Has Quietly Investigated White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/31/the-fbi-has-quietly-investigated-white-supremacist-infiltration-of-law-enforcement/

FBI's warning of white supremacists infiltrating law enforcement nearly forgotten
by Samuel V. Jones | May 12, 2015
http://thegrio.com/2015/05/12/fbi-white-supremacists-law-enforcement/


Anonymous Begins Publishing Identities of KKK Politicians and Cops
http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/11/anonymous-exposes-politicians-and-cops/


Photos surface of Philly police officer with Nazi tattoo
http://www.phillyvoice.com/photos-surface-philly-police-officer-nazi-tattoo/


KKK Has Infiltrated US Police Departments for Decades
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/kkk-has-infiltrated-us-police-departments-decades


It's time to admit police have a history of connections with the KKK
http://fusion.net/story/245527/police-history-kkk-connections/


"White Supremacist Infiltration of Law Enforcement"
http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/402521/doc-26-white-supremacist-infiltration.pdf

[Lee-Lee]

22. There are around 800,000 sworn officers in general USA

Your reports cite cases that can be numbered in the dozens.

Maybe hundreds being generous.

All in all that's a far lower percentage than you find in society at large.

Every one is still a problem and still a problem and still troubling, but to claim that it's some sort of epidemic or widespread is either an intentional misrepresentation of the facts to paint things as far worse than they really are or shows you just can't understand basic math and statistics.

[RandomAccess]

25. So glad you're here to treat the problem so dismissively

If they're ANYWHERE in our law enforcement, it's too many.

So glad you're not discomfited by that though.

[gopiscrap]

28. Every pig out there has an authority complex

they are just looking for an opportunity to beat up those they disagree with.

[Gravitycollapse]

31. You haven't taken into account what kind of people want to be cops.

Police departments are made up largely of white men with superiority complexes. That's true basically everywhere, even in communities where white people are not in the majority.

[Dawson Leery]

33. +1,000,000

US Cops have the DNA of the Slave Patrols in their heritage.

[Gravitycollapse]

35. Yep. Absolutely.

[gopiscrap]

29. totally agree

[raccoon]

4. The police stood by on Kristallnacht. Still think it can't happen here? nt

[no_hypocrisy]

5. I was just about to make THE SAME observation.

[mopinko]

6. have an old hippie friend who was in the streets in the 60's.

he tells a story of counter protesting a kkk march in chicago.
there were cops everywhere as the march approached where they were.
when the klan arrived, the cops evaporated.
pretty much every one of them were beaten up.

nothing new under the sun.

[SweetieD]

7. Wish people would be honest. Many police side with these white supremacist groups. That is why

they stood down. There is no way in hell they would stand down if groups of young black men were randomly fighting whites. I watched the live feeds and saw random fights and attacks solely started by nazis. No police intervened.

[tblue37]

11. Think of how the cops treated the peaceful Ferguson protesters--and the military

equipment they deployed.

[gopiscrap]

27. exactly

[malaise]

10. I posted this before noon yesterday

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029447958

[tblue37]

13. You posted this comment at the same time I posted mine making the same point! nt

[malaise]

15. LOL

Great minds!

[maveric]

12. To Protect and Serve.

[smirkymonkey]

14. They are going to be in for a surprise next weekend in Boston.

Our mayor will not stand for that here. And neither will the people.

[workinclasszero]

16. Remember how the police responded to peaceful Occupy protesters?

Where the hell were the police when NAZI'S/KKK were terrorizing the streets of Charlottesville huh?????

[speaktruthtopower]

18. They should have kept them apart...

[Solly Mack]

23. They did. I watched events as they unfolded and the police just stood there.

Sometimes they ducked when a bottle got too close.

Now imagine them simply standing there while a bottle flies over their heads at a BLM protest.

Yeah - can you see all the blood and bodies? I can.

[HeartachesNhangovers]

24. I'm not a cop, but I imagine that in a riot

situation, the police consider all the participants a potential threat to themselves. Their law-and-order mentality probably leads them to think that if you didn't leave at the first hint of violence that you are probably a trouble-maker. Remember, they don't carry all that gear to protect you - they carry it to protect themselves.

[gopiscrap]

26. fucking pigs most of them

side with the Nazi's. Why do you think they became cops in the first place?

[FuzzyRabbit]

30. It could be worse.

It could be like the 1960s, when the police in the South were the ones brutalizing civil rights workers and demonstrators. My guess is that the the police in the South are not much different now than they were then.

The reason the Charlottesville police did not stop the violence is they may have been secretly cheering on the Nazis and KKK thugs.

At any rate, the KKK and Nazis feel emboldened now and we are apt to see even worse violence from them.

[Dawson Leery]

32. This is why we must oppose all raises for them.

[AntiFascist]

34. When the police are not there for us something else will fill the vacuum...

just remember that the white supremacists are greatly outnumbered.