Experts in law enforcement say the violent protests in Charlottesville, Va., last weekend offer cities around the country a chance to learn how to better prepare for rallies in the future in which white nationalists are likely to be met by counter-protesters.
Virginia’s public safety officials have broadly defended the police response in Charlottesville, but have also admitted some shortcomings. Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corrine Geller said both groups were granted permits to rally, and said police set up a barrier between the two groups.
But she also acknowledged later that the boundary was overrun, and police couldn’t tell one group from the other.
Alex Vitale, coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College, said that showed that the police planning was not enough, since there was a clear breakdown in “operational orders.”
Vitale added that police need to be more clear on their plan to separate the two groups, since there did not appear to be enough officers at key points. Vitale said police appeared not to be making any effort to separate the two.
“We need a lot more transparency from the Charlottesville Police [Department] and from the Virginia State Police,” Vitale told the Washington Examiner. “Who made the decision not to go out in the streets and try to intervene in these obvious acts of violence that resulted in serious injuries?”
Geller has rejected that assessment, and said contrary to reports, there was “no stand-down order” issued by state or local police on Saturday when white nationalists and counter-protesters started to clash. Geller said there were “roving patrols” of officers throughout the area.
Others indicated that Charlottesville might have done a better job anticipating the violence that would happen when the two groups collided.
Charlottesville Police Chief Al Thomas said efforts were made to talk to “all the groups we believed would be attending with the permit holder” to make sure they were set to follow the agreed upon rules.
“This contact included reviewing the security plan we had developed. All these groups agreed to cooperate with law enforcement and follow that plan. It is unfortunate that that did not happen,” Thomas said of the process, which every protest group has to go through with the city it plans to protest in.
But Peter Moskos, an associate professor in the Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former police officer in Baltimore, Md., told the Washington Examiner that physical altercations almost have to be expected when neo-Nazis are involved.
He said Charlottesville was “a different kind of protest, which is why I do think it seems like the planning — the difference is, along with their being Nazis involved, you do have two sides who wanted to rumble.”
“This pushes things to ahead a bit. This is a seen as a problem, and that can affect future permit giving,” Moskos said.
There are other questions about how prepared police were once things got out of hand. Thomas noted that police were not originally in riot gear, and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said the white supremacist demonstrators “had better equipment” than the state’s police forces.
But Freedom of Information Act documents show the Virginia state police received “sophisticated, military-grade weapons” from the Department of Defense 1033 program. Virginia law enforcement were provided with “aircraft, tactical vehicles, weapons, night vision/optical devices, weapons supressors, and other items,” ahead of last weekend.
Gary Hankins, a former Metropolitan Police Department officer in Washington and now leader of the Association of Retired Police Officers, told the Washington Examiner that the experience in Charlottesville is likely going to serve as a wake up call to police in other parts of the country.
He recalled protests against the Vietnam War in 1971 in which people hurled batteries at police in order to “break us down.” He said police didn’t take the bait, but said it took years of training to handle those kinds of violent protests.
Another major lesson going forward is taking into account the size of the police force relative to the number of protesters. Hankins said white supremacist groups look for small cities with smaller police forces, and said smaller cities will likely learn to coordinate with others to handle these groups.
On Saturday, there were several planned protests around the nation against the removal of Confederate statues and monuments. In Boston, a major “Free Speech” right-wing rally with a few hundred attendees ended early because thousands of anti-protesters showed up against them.
The Washington Post reported from Boston Common that there were a few moments of flared tensions, but it no one was injured. The City of Boston was well-prepared for Saturday’s event, with hundreds of police officers and elaborate barriers between the two groups.
