Charlottesville investigation finds the police grossly mishandled the white supremacist event...

[tenderfoot]

that ended in a murder - and that the police chief tried to obstruct the investigation:

CHARLOTTESVILLE — A police officer radioed for help as angry protesters swarmed around her: “They are pushing the crowd my way and I have nobody here to help me.”

Tammy Shiflett, who had just returned to active duty as an elementary school resource officer after two months recovering from a shoulder surgery, was the only person assigned to block traffic at the intersection where a deadly car attack began in Charlottesville on Aug. 12.

Instead of sending reinforcements, a superior instructed her to abandon her post and move the car that had been positioned in the intersection, leaving a wooden sawhorse as the only barrier keeping vehicles out of the area. Roughly an hour and a half later, a white nationalist drove his car down that very street, striking a crowd of counterprotesters and killing 32-year-old activist Heather Heyer.

<snip>

The review, led by Tim Heaphy, a former federal prosecutor who now works for Hunton & Williams, also found:

• Despite repeated public statements by state and local officials that officers were not instructed to “stand down,” police had in fact been instructed only to intervene in conflicts between white nationalists and counterprotesters in the event of serious injury.

• A Virginia State Police commander made an “off-plan” decision to keep state officers behind barricades instead of sending them into the streets to break up fights and make arrests.

• After clashes began, Police Chief Al Thomas was heard by several people in the command center saying to “let them fight, it will make it easier to declare an unlawful assembly” and shut down the rally.

• Thomas attempted to obstruct the city’s investigation, deleting relevant text messages, attempting to hide his use of a personal email account to conduct some official police business, and creating planning checklists that were not actually used to plan for the rallies.

• The 220-page document is based on hundreds of thousands of documents, video and audio recordings, photos and interviews. It represents the most comprehensive account yet of how public officials handled the “Unite the Right” rally.



http://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/charlottesville-review-faulty-planning-passive-police-led-to-disastrous-results/article_90234a84-9cc2-59f4-bb6f-9dfb158cf154.html

[underpants]

1. Troubling. I think the Richmond Model should be the foundation of SOP

Richmond did a really good job with the "protest " by the 4 loons from Tennessee.

They got word out early and loudly:
Stay away
No hoodies masks or shields/weapons. Immediate arrest.
They couldn't override open carry/concealed here but they made it clear that any use of guns to intimidate would also result in immediate arrest
Checkin points and very well divided boundaries.

They worked their tails off but it was very successful.