[ForYourChildren]

"But according to the ACLU and reporters covering the rally, the violence escalated due to what many believe was an intentional lack of police oversight, with the blame aimed squarely at Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe."

Interesting.

[workerbee]

Isn’t this something that happens in prison yards?

Hmm.

[EasySt]

Yes, I believe that is exactly what they wanted.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Where is Jason Kessler now?

[colorado tanker]

I've been saying this from the beginning. When I first heard this violence was going on I went online to find photos. There were no police in most of them.

Might just as well poured gasoline over the town and lit a match. Given that loudmouth mayor has been all over TV attacking Trump it is a very reasonable inference that he got the exact result he wanted. He knew the media and left would fly cover for the alt-left people.

[mosaicwolf]

Hmmmm. Let me think about this for a moment.

McAuliffe.....Clinton......Obama.....Alinsky.

Makes perfect sense for those that aren't afraid of the truth.

[Yo-Yo]

Not a dissimilar tactic from Obama’s Gun Walker program.

Facilitate the circumstances to create violence, then use that violence as justification to effect a course of action.

[Vlad The Inhaler]

Code of Virginia

http://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title18.2/chapter9/section18.2-422/

§ 18.2-422. Prohibition of wearing of masks in certain places; exceptions.

It shall be unlawful for any person over 16 years of age to, with the intent to conceal his identity, wear any mask, hood or other device whereby a substantial portion of the face is hidden or covered so as to conceal the identity of the wearer, to be or appear in any public place, or upon any private property in this Commonwealth without first having obtained from the owner or tenant thereof consent to do so in writing.

However, the provisions of this section shall not apply to persons

• (i) wearing traditional holiday costumes;
• (ii) engaged in professions, trades, employment or other activities and wearing protective masks which are deemed necessary for the physical safety of the wearer or other persons;
• (iii) engaged in any bona fide theatrical production or masquerade ball; or
• (iv) wearing a mask, hood or other device for bona fide medical reasons upon

  (a) the advice of a licensed physician or osteopath and carrying on his person an affidavit from the physician or osteopath specifying the medical necessity for wearing the device and the date on which the wearing of the device will no longer be necessary and providing a brief description of the device, or

  (b) the declaration of a disaster or state of emergency by the Governor in response to a public health emergency where the emergency declaration expressly waives this section, defines the mask appropriate for the emergency, and provides for the duration of the waiver. The violation of any provisions of this section is a Class 6 felony.

[Ancesthntr]

“The police actually allowed us to square off against each other,” one counter-protester told CNN. “There were fights and the police were standing a block away the entire time. It’s almost as if they wanted us to fight each other.”

---

It is not “as if” - they DID want you to fight each other. This was a complete set up from the start, with the organizer of the “White Supremacist” side being Jason Kessler, a well-known Lefist Obama supporter who “miraculously” became a conservative or libertarian the day that Trump got elected. Well, BS to that - the guy is working for the other side, he never stopped doing that, but it more effective if he **looks** like he’s the head of a “right wing” organization and has it do outrageous things.

The pity is that the folks following him are too stupid to have looked him up (well, those that aren’t flying a false flag, like he is doing).

This whole thing just STINKS - but at least President Trump is smoking out residents of the Swamp in the process.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I remember years ago a demonstration by Civil Rights marchers through a White area. Nothing happened.

The news media on the scene did everything to get a fight response from those watching the demonstration telling the watchers to “Make a fist! Frown! Look mad!” They got nothing.

[Ray76]

[eyedigress]

Of course they do.

The MSM is the guilty party. They protect the Deep State.

[Vlad The Inhaler]

Is It Illegal to Wear Masks at a Protest? It Depends on the Place

By Matthew Haag; April 26, 2017

On the February night that the right-wing writer Milo Yiannopoulos was scheduled to speak at the University of California, Berkeley, thousands of protesters showed up wearing bandannas and masks covering their faces. Their identities a secret from the police, some in the crowd turned violent and set fires.

Mr. Yiannopoulos’s speech was canceled, and, until Wednesday morning, the authorities at Berkeley were preparing for what could have been an even larger demonstration over the visit of another polarizing figure, Ann Coulter. The conservative media personality, who has said she would speak Thursday, canceled her appearance after the conservative groups that had initially sponsored her backed out because of safety concerns.

Some conservative media sites have criticized the University of California for not cracking down on protesters from the left, and have lauded the tough stance taken by the authorities at Auburn University in Alabama. Before a speech by the white nationalist Richard Spencer at the Auburn campus last week, the police stopped anti-fascist protesters and ordered them to remove their masks.

The different approaches by the police at Berkeley and Auburn illustrate more than just a contrast in tactics to try to tame clashes between far-left and far-right demonstrators. The authorities in Alabama also have a law enforcement tool that those in California lack: a broad anti-mask law.

Since 1949, it has been illegal to wear a mask in public in Alabama outside of occasions like Halloween and Mardi Gras. That sweeping law, and others enacted across the country around that time, was in direct response to the Ku Klux Klan.

Numerous states have laws governing the wearing of masks in public. In Ohio, for instance, it is illegal for two or more people to wear “white caps, masks or other disguises” while committing a misdemeanor. In West Virginia, a broad law prohibiting the wearing of masks includes several exceptions: holiday costumes and winter sports attire, among others.

California had an expansive anti-mask law for decades, until the Iranian revolution in 1979. Iranian-Americans in California sued over the law, saying it kept them from shielding their identities for safety purposes in protests against the new leadership in Iran. The law was struck down.

“The California court recognized, and other courts recognize, that people wear masks in all sorts of situations for completely nonviolent and, in fact, purposes that are protected by the First Amendment,” Michael T. Risher, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said in an interview.

After that case, the state enacted a far narrower provision: It is illegal to wear a mask in the act of committing a crime. The University of California, Berkeley, also has its own regulation for masks: People who are not affiliated with the university cannot wear masks on campus for the purpose of intimidation.

But Mr. Risher said the university had not tried to enforce its regulation against protesters who were merely wearing masks, probably because the word “intimidation” is vague and open to many interpretations.

“Because of the attention these protests and their responses are getting, they are probably taking a restrictive view of what intimidation constitutes,” he said. “They are focusing, as they should, on people who are committing criminal acts.”

Across the country, courts have reached different conclusions on whether mask laws violate the First Amendment. In 1999, the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan won a case against Goshen, Ind., in Federal District Court over the city’s ordinance banning masks in public.

A New York State law prohibiting “being masked or in any manner disguised” in public has withstood legal challenges since 1845 and has been used recently. The police in New York City cited the mask law while arresting people associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 and 2012.

Like the laws in other states, the New York statute includes exceptions for masquerade parties and other entertainment events. But unlike other states, New York did not pursue the legislation in response to the Ku Klux Klan. The law was intended to prevent the killing of landlords by tenant farmers in the Hudson Valley who dressed up as American Indians and wore disguises of calico gowns and leather masks.