A half dozen police departments and emergency services briefed Charlottesville city council on plans for the anniversary of violence last August 12th. There were powerful promises but few specifics.
Charlottesville has issued no permits for gatherings on the 12th in downtown parks, but the leader of last year’s Unite the Right Rally – Jason Kessler – will be in federal court on July 24th asking that his permit request be approved.
In the meantime, Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner vowed safety personnel would try to be ready for anything. “We’ve been meeting bi-weekly with our regional partners since March, and our operational concept is really quite simple," he said. "We are planning for worst case scenarios. I don’t say that to frighten people. I say that to make sure that our community understands that that’s our job.”
Police from the city, county and state stressed that they were in full cooperation, and acting city manager Mike Murphy said problems that surfaced last year had been corrected. “We do have one unified plan this year. We have integrated our communications systems with the Virginia State Police, and we will take a new approach to security.”
Toward that end, they stressed that police were fully empowered to make arrests, that they would focus on keeping opposing groups apart and ban most cars and trucks downtown.
But during the public comment period, citizen Lewis Schultz noted city council was planning to be on vacation the week before the anniversary, leaving new managers in charge. “The chief of police will have been on the job for less than a month on August 12th. There will only be an acting city manager mid-way through his first month, and it’s now time to cancel whatever play time you think is more important than the safety of this city, and be prepared to meet on that day.”
The city says it will do everything possible to assure public safety, but during civil unrest there are no guarantees, and people might want to avoid the downtown area. That didn’t sit well with resident Zoey Krylova who also spoke during the public comment period.
“If we discourage our own community members from coming downtown, the Nazis have won. This should be a time where local citizens take over the streets, own their downtown and show up in numbers, Make this a day of people’s action for racial justice. The world is watching. Let’s show it what Charlottesville can become.
The city said it would be in touch with neighborhood organizations and would post street closings, parking restrictions and other information to its website as decisions are made.
Click here for more information on the city's plan and events
