CULTURE CLASHthat Saturday, the measures taken were inadequate. A
single wooden sawhorse was all that stood in the way
of cars driving down Fourth Street, a barrier that a
Prius could plow through without much of an issue.
At the corner of Market Street and Fourth Street NE,
the way was blocked by a single officer stationed there.
It was all sliding toward pandemonium, as Bri-
an Moran watched from the command center on
the sixth floor of the Wells Fargo building, giving
me constant updates. “That was when the crowd
converged into chaos,” Brian remembers. “The ac-
cess to the park was all messed up. In addition to
the incredible naïveté that they would even follow
such a plan, there were way too many protesters
to follow such instructions. The park fencing was
just too small to accommodate the crowds of eitherand long wooden clubs approached the park on
Market Street. About two dozen counterprotesters
formed a line across the street, blocking their path.
With a roar, the marchers charged through the line,
swinging sticks, punching and spraying chemicals.”
Reporter A. C. Thompson was in the middle of
the action. “We witnessed one instance where a
battalion of white supremacists encountered an
older group of counterprotesters,” he said later.
“They were like give-peace-a-chance, middle-aged,
and senior-citizens kind of folks. And the white su-
premacists just absolutely pummeled them.”
Our folks had reviewed a long list of contingency
plans and underlined the importance of sealing off
the streets around the park. That was basic crowd con-
trol, less a question of specific threat assessment, butOpposite page (clockwise
from top left): White
nationalists carrying
Confederate ʀags march
toward the rally; groups
of white supremacists
and counterprotesters
clash; an alt-right protester
hurls a water bottle at
counterprotesters; and
a group called “The
Militia” arrive to “keep
the peace.” Below: After
clashes at the Unite the
Right rally, it was declared
an unlawful gathering and
people were forced out
of Emancipation Park.ACLU and one judge, this roiling mix of THOUSANDS OF DEMONSTRATORS and...
a small area in and around Emancipation Park.”