Last weekend, three counter-protesters were arrested in Charlottesville amid the one-year anniversary of the “Unite the Right” rally after they assaulted a police officer. Although the incident is troubling, it is at least far, far better than what happened last year that led to the deaths of one counter-protester and two Virginia State Trooper pilots. Though, not everyone in Charlottesville was happy with the nearly non-violent weekend in the city.
On Tuesday, dozens of residents gathered at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center to express their frustrations with Mayor Nikuyah Walker and City Council members Heather Hill, Wes Bellamy, and Kathy Galvin. People were criticizing the large police presence in and around the Downtown Mall, and the two security checkpoints used to ensure that no one carried firearms and other weapons into the area.
Yes, the citizens of Charlottesville are angry that a large police presence was near the area where members of Antifa and white supremacists fought each other with bats and chemical sprays last year. Yes, they are also angry that police were checking to see if people had weapons – even those who were wearing masks.
University of Virginia history professor John Mason said there was too much antagonism towards protesters. “Imagine how different this weekend would have been if the police understood their primary responsibility is to protect free speech rights of protesters and to keep them safe,” he said in a report from the Daily Progress.
It must be presumed that the primary responsibility of the police was to make sure that no one died that day, considering what happened last year.
“I appreciate the over-policing of white Nazis, but we need to stop over-policing black residents,” said activist Tanesha Hudson.
Local attorney Jeff Fogel explained that he took issue with the restrictions on the Downtown Mall, wherein residents were “forced” to enter at two controlled points where bags were searched.
“The notion that the government can stop us on the main streets of our city to conduct searches is unbelievable,” he said.
Well, police and security guards do that at concerts, at the airport, and when entering a court building.
Dozens upon dozens of other residents echoed similar sentiments about the tense feelings created by the amount of police present in the city, also calling for de-escalation training for police officers and more transparency behind City Council decision-making.
In fact, not one person showed up to praise the way in which the city handled the weekend.
Mayor Walker said the policing was “less aggressive than much of what she had seen in her life,” and that a “large police presence and searches are a near-daily reality.”
“What happened this weekend is telling of the Charlottesville that we live in,” Walker said in the report. “There were people who were not concerned by the large police presence, they were there to make sure the businesses in the Downtown Mall felt supported.”
NBC 29 reported that Bellamy commented on the rally by saying, “They [counter-protesters] weren’t doing anything that was unlawful. And I asked if you could why the students would be upset when they see a hundred cops in riot gear that just escalates the situation.”
It is hard to put into the words the confusion and underlying irritation and complete resentment for the comments. What did they expect to see this weekend? Low-rent amusement park guards? Law enforcement officers not checking bags that would have had weapons in them last year?
Were the people in Charlottesville so busy worrying about being progressive that they forgot what happened 365 days ago?
People died last year.
How can they be surprised when police are just a little on edge after a state of emergency was called?
Last year, people were crying out that there was not enough police protection. Now, they are crying out that the police presence was oppressive.
It could be that Charlottesville is not the capital of resistance, as Senator Tim Kaine once said, but, in fact, the capital of irony.