Charlottesville declares state of emergency before white supremacist rally begin

Source: Washington Examiner | August 12, 2017 | Kyle Feldscher

Local authorities declared a state of emergency before a rally of neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates and other white supremacist groups started in Charlottesville, Va. Saturday morning following clashes between those groups and counter-protesters.

Charlottesville police announced just before 11:30 a.m. Saturday that they were declaring a state of emergency to allow them to bring in more resources from outside jurisdictions.

However, the state of emergency declaration would not stop the event from taking place.

“Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones and Interim County Executive Doug Walker have simultaneously issued a Declaration of Local Emergency for the two jurisdictions,” the statement read. “This joint declaration allows local officials to request additional resources if needed to respond to ongoing events in the community, which are currently localized in downtown Charlottesville.”

“Scheduled activities outside the downtown area are not impacted by ongoing events or by this declaration at this time. Local officials continue to closely monitor the situation and will provide additional details as they are available.”

The “Unite The Right” rally in downtown Charlottesville is scheduled to being at noon Saturday. The rally was originally organized to protest the decision to remove a statute of Robert E. Lee, the general in command of a large group of Confederate soldiers in the Civil War, from a park in Charlottesville.

Social media posts from the scene have shown a group — overwhelmingly white men, but some women as well — have flooded into Charlottesville. Many are sporting homemade shields and reports indicate some have thrown bottles filled with cement at counter protesters.

Videos show clashes between the white supremacist groups and so-called antifa, or anti-fascist, groups who have shown up in the town to counter the white supremacist rally.

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