What do you do when you have two factions that hate each other arrive for a showdown? You keep them apart...... PERIOD.
The hate filled rhetoric and demonstration that began on the past Friday in Charlottesville was the precursor to events that unfolded on Saturday. One women killed, two police officers died and over twenty people injured, some seriously.
There were ample indicators of the potential for the mayhem that occurred. The level of rhetoric, the overt taunts, the garb, masks, helmets and the agitators themselves were enough to warrant much more controlling police engagement.
All that followed could have been prevented by better and more forceful policing. We have learned that no stand down types of orders were issued, but do we know how aggressive the policing was allowed to be. Remember the Governor of Virginia is Terry MCauliffe not a bastion of support for law enforcement.
At the very least separating the factions could have diminished or even eliminated the possibility that violence would run rampant as it ultimately did.
The White Supremacists, Neo Nazi and KKK low life thugs spewed vile and hateful words stoking the flames of anger in the counter protesters. Certainly some of the those opponents were not even from the area and had come from afar with the purpose of a confrontation but that is a much smaller part of the story.
The police should have understood the dynamics at play and acted accordingly to the protect everyone. They were there in force but were no where near aggressive enough to control the crowds. Allowing the groups to come in contact with other was a failure of police leadership.
In the wake of the failure, the deaths and the injuries the President attempted to denounce the violence, the hate and bigotry on display. He has subsequently been accused of not calling out the perpetrators for what the are - White Supremacists, Neo Nazis and KKK. The accusations painted him as somehow covering for those groups by not calling them by name. Nothing could be further from the truth. Does anyone really believe that President Trump holds that position or has the smallest centella of empathy towards them.
For years we berated Obama for not saying radical Islamic terrorism and he never did. President Trump heard the uproar and the accusation against him and called an impromptu statement to the press and the world in which he very specifically called out those hateful groups, by name, by description and pointedly stated they do not belong in the America we all love.
That was not enough for the resistance who will never take a breathe, digest how the President is not your everyday politician but is a street fighter. In his first statement on Saturday he denounced ALL and I am sure in his mind he was saying something that overarched the situation. ALL means ALL and they were denounced. In his second statement he denounced ALL violent thugs and criminal once again.
The goal appears to be paint the President with the broadest darkest brush. He has been labeled incompetent to hold the position, illegitimate, impeachable, a traitor, a buffoon and hateful human being. Unless this resistance mitigates their assaults on POTUS for the good of the country; while they make plans to be successful in the next election, the fabric of America will continue to tatter until is is barely recognizable.
Mr. Trump was not responsible for the tragedy in Charlottesville a lunatic fringe element was allowed to cross the line and visit mayhem on the streets of that otherwise beautiful town.
Let's not forget the President Obama invited the Black Lives Matter folks to the White House. Sorry folks but you will never see any skin heads at 1600 - just saying.