Government officials in Charlottesville, Virginia have rejected criticism that police failed to act to break up white nationalists and counterprotesters to prevent clashes that injured 14 people. Thomas claimed that “once the unlawful assembly was declared, we gave people sufficient opportunity to disperse. Signer said: “That’s totally mistaken ... We had the single largest assembly of law enforcement officers since 9/11, almost 1,000 law enforcement personnel,” he added. We planned for a long time for today’s incidents.”But figures on both sides of the protest said the police response had fallen short. White nationalist leader and Unite the Right organizer Richard Spencer claimed that police failed marchers on his side of the political spectrum.

Source: The Guardian August 13, 2017 21:00 UTC