27 August, 2017
The fact that violence broke out at the white supremacist and neo-Nazi protest is not new news in itself. But the ACLU video shows more than a lack of preparedness, according to counter-protesters at the event. Another anti-racist demonstrator, Deandre Harris, was viciously beaten in a parking lot by white supremacists carrying metal poles.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia released the footage and forwarded it to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. People who witnessed it said that nearby law enforcement clearly heard the shot, but did nothing to intervene or apprehend the man. He's in police custody now.
"We all heard it and ran - I know damn well they heard it", Charlottesville community activist Rosia Parker told the New York Times. And the white supremacists believe both the police and the president endorse them.
Reigniting criticism of the police role at the protests.
As he walked away and the video panned out, police officers are seen a few feet away, unmoving and apparently unconcerned.
A 52-year-old Baltimore man, one of three more people charged in the August 12 white nationalist rally in Virginia, was arrested Saturday and is being held in the Baltimore County Detention Center.
Corrine Geller, a spokesperson for the Virginia State police claimed that troopers did not hear the shot because it was "muffled by the loud volume of the crowd yelling and chanting, drums and music".
