No one was seriously injured and there were just 22 arrests in Charlottesville Saturday when about a thousand people surrounded fewer than 50 members of the Ku Klux Klan. Now, police are reviewing what happened and getting ready for the next contentious rally next month.
Police Chief Al Thomas came to Charlottesville just over a year ago from a small town on the other side of the mountain, and – strangely enough -- he brought strong experience dealing with hostile crowds.
“Six months into my tenure as police chief in Lexington, the mayor banned the confederate flag from public buildings,” he explains.
For the next 18 months the Sons of Confederate Veterans staged lively protests against the city. Here in Charlottesville, Thomas and his team accurately projected that a thousand people would jam Justice Park to protest the Klan.
An angry crowd chanted and surrounded the small, fenced area designated for the Klan’s protest over plans to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee, and when the KKK arrived from North Carolina, the chief faced one of the day’s biggest dilemmas.
“We weren’t sure that we could get them in," he recalls. "A number of protesters blocked the entrance, and then some locked arms and refused commands to move.”
They were warned – then arrested so the Klansmen could make their entry, but Thomas says the KKK couldn’t stay long.
“They had a permit to demonstrate for an hour," he says. "Thirty minutes into the demonstration the atmosphere changed, the crowd became more aggressive, I felt that public safety was close to being jeopardized, and they were told, ‘It’s time. You need to leave.’”
Then came the day’s final challenge – clearing about a hundred protesters who surrounded the Klansmen as they tried to drive away. Again, people were warned before officers detonated three canisters of tear gas.
This week, Thomas says he’ll meet with state officials to plan for another rally, this one hosted by the Alt-Right on August 12th.