LA Times: Who was responsible for the violence in Charlottesville? Here's what witnesses say

[TomSea]

Who was responsible for the violence in Charlottesville? Here's what witnesses say

The clashes that broke out over the weekend at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., have become a new touchstone in the nation’s long-running debate over racism, free speech and violence.

One woman was killed and many more injured when a car, allegedly driven by a rally participant, sped into a crowd of anti-racism protesters. Two state troopers monitoring the action died in a helicopter crash later in the day, though no foul play was suspected.

The event quickly took on enormous political importance as Democrats and Republicans alike denounced the violence and the white supremacist views espoused at the far-right rally. President Trump has also denounced the racist groups, but he suggests that anti-racism counter-demonstrators share some of the blame. On Tuesday, he said “both sides” were responsible for the bloodshed.

What actually happened?

Here are several first-hand accounts of Saturday’s events in Charlottesville, collected from journalists, protesters and far-right ralliers who have published their accounts of what they saw that day.

Charlottesville Daily Progress photographer Ryan Kelly: “I hitched a ride with my editor downtown, and I started wandering the mall. There were groups on both sides scattered. There were a few small fights that broke out from time to time. People were throwing stuff at each other. A few people were beating on each other.”

BuzzFeed News reporter Blake Montgomery: “Most white supremacist and Nazi groups arrived armed like a paramilitary force — carrying shields, protective gear, rods and, yes, lots of guns, utilizing Virginia’s loose firearm laws. They used militarized defensive maneuvers, shouting commands at one another to ‘move forward’ or ‘retreat,’ and would form a line of shields or a phalanx — it’s like they watched ‘300’ a few times — to gain ground or shepherd someone through projectiles. It seemed that they had practiced for this.”

Continued: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-charlottesville-witnesses-20170815-story.html

A balanced article if one reads it in it's entirety imo.

[endicom]

LAT, NBC and BBC all confirming Trump's contention of both sides being culpable. Amazing.

[bolobaby]

I found the eyewitness report regarding the car interesting. It says the car approached the protesters slowly at first then accelerated suddenly when only a few feet from the protesters.

This in contrast to the non-eyewitness account by a certain poster here who claims the car got a several block running start and slammed into them without slowing.

[The_Reader_David]

I found the eyewitness report regarding the car interesting. It says the car approached the protesters slowly at first then accelerated suddenly when only a few feet from the protesters.

This in contrast to the non-eyewitness account by a certain poster here who claims the car got a several block running start and slammed into them without slowing.

The death-toll of one only supports the slow, then accelerating account.  A several-block running start into a crowd would have resulted in a great deal more mayhem.

[The_Reader_David]

LAT, NBC and BBC all confirming Trump's contention of both sides being culpable. Amazing.

I'm actually not amazed at the LAT.   Despite their reliably left-wing editorial policy, they seem to be the last bastion of the ideal of objective news reporting in the American print media.   They, along with Agence France Presse, debunked the NATO claims of "genocide" in Kosovo, sometimes in real-time, while the rest of the American media parroted whatever came out of Brussels and Washington, and there were numerous times when posters on TOS were amazed by the LAT covering stories fairly from the POV of the American right.