the more i read actual news about this event, the more misleading this post looks.
fights kept breaking out between the two sides all day; of course the police didn’t wade into the crowds, that would’ve made everything so much worse. the way this post is written – “they were beaten. they were maced.” – sounds like they stood there and took it, but all the reports say there were many scuffles, and a lot of the counter protesters came ready to kick ass and did so. there’s a reason you’re not supposed to use passive voice in journalism. there was full on brawling this morning.
the photo makes it seem like this little cluster of a dozen people was the sole holdout of human decency against an overwhelming tide of nazi horror. but there were a hell of a lot more than that, including a group of clergy and religious folks singing hymns to drown out the nazis.
you make it sound like the police were on the side of the nazis. according to fact sources, the whole city was pissed as hell at them, and in fact the nazis were protesting against the city’s decision to take down a confederate statue. the police were definitely not on the tiki torch assholes’ side.
two police are dead, by the way. a helicopter went down while on duty. no one has said why it crashed yet, which is concerning. two dead cops and you wanna think the police were defending the out-of-state agitators who brought a pitchfork mob to tell the city what to do with its statues?
you say “They were then forcefully removed by the police, who called them an “unlawful assembly.”“ – i found no news source describing counterprotesters being forcibly removed. it seems they were happy to leave once the nazis were kicked out of the park. and the final cherry on the misinformation cake: ‘unlawful assembly’ isn’t some mean name they got called. it’s the declaration that allowed the state to clear the park and streets, and they called it to make the nazis leave. by its nature it means everyone has to go home, but the governor and officials were very clear on the fact that they did it to give the police legal power to send the nazis home.
in short, charlottesville wasn’t the scene of an out-of-control fascist government beating up a small handful of nice people and letting the bastards run wild. it was the scene of a mostly left-leaning city universally furious at fascists, some psycho drove a car into the crowd (i notice you don’t mention that, the woman who died, the 20 injured), a police helicopter crashed, and you fucking better believe they’re 500% more committed to taking that goddamn statue down.
as are other cities. thanks to this fiasco, other cities are hastening to get rid of their own confederate decorations, lest they draw crowds of polo shirt wearing dick-wavers. so the nazis achieved the exact opposite of their goal.
tl;dr: i reject your narrative of a weak counter to an overwhelmingly strong white supremacist force. the truth is that this little tiki party was a huge defeat for american nazis. they got spanked and sent home crying, except for the one being tried for secodn degree murder.
