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It was easy to be elated after Friday night. One might have found it equally easy to be dispirited on Saturday.
Instead of executing safety and security plans that had been coordinated with event organizers over a period of months, police obeyed stand-down orders from above, until swinging boldly into action and exerting their force ... against us.
It was shocking to hear blared from police loudspeakers the declaration that our assembly was unlawful and that we would be forcibly dispersed if we did not leave. Once the shock passed, it became clear that this was the authorities' plan all along--to corral us into a small area of Lee Park and, once we were inside, deploy a waiting line of riot police to push, kick, and beat us until we withdrew from the Park and into the violent mob that waited to attack us.
Our Executive Director, Evan McLaren, was knocked to the ground, arrested, and placed in the back of a police vehicle. I struggled against the riot police until I was obliged to escape through the crowd of antifascists, ducking bottles and dodging punches. ...
http://mailchi.mp/npiamerica/the-world-is-watching-charlottesville-are-you-2746265?e=381cca0d4b
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