News

These Terrifying Tweets From Charlottesville Capture The Chaos Of The Protest

by Natasha Guzmán

Aug. 12, 2017

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Violence and chaos broke out on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia on Saturday during a white supremacist "Unite the Right" rally. Tensions were already bound to be high after a Friday night demonstration at the University of Virginia, wherein proud white nationalists marched through the school's campus carrying torches, chanting racist and homophobic slogans, and getting into physical altercations with counter-protesters. By 11 a.m., Gov. Terry McAuliffe had declared a state of emergency.

On Saturday, hundreds of members of the "alt-right" and white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Vanguard America, and Identity Evropa were met by hundreds of protesters and activists opposing their messages.

The scene was immediately strained with hostility, and the rally, which was set to begin at noon at Emancipation Park, was declared an "unlawful assembly" by police shortly before its scheduled start. According to CNN, the catalysts for this decision were fistfights and "screaming matches" unfolding in multiple locations.

Shortly before 2 p.m. EST, one "Unite the Right" supporter was captured on video plowing a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, injuring at least 10 pedestrians. Shortly after, Charlottesville Mayor Mike Signer revealed that one person had died.

Here are what some people on the ground at Charlottesville witnessed.

1. Homophobia

2. Taunting

3. Devastating Violence

4. Lack Of Police Aggression

5. When The People You Hate Treat You Nicely...

6. Misleading "Guards"

7. Police Clear Park

8. Apparently This Was The Motive

9. No Question It Was Intentional

10. One Of The Witnesses

11. Trump Will Probably Ignore This

12. Counter-Protesters Denounce The Hate

13. Kind Of Fitting

14. Calling Out The Police

15. Black Lives Matter

16. Escalation From Tense To Terrifying

17. Aftermath Of Crash.

18. Former KKK Leader David Duke Showing Up

19. Duke Giving A Speech

20. He Ended It With Anti-Semitism

21. Fighting

22. Emergency Response

23. Clashing With Police

24. Richard Spencer Pepper Sprayed

25. Message To White Supremacists

President Trump held a press conference on Saturday afternoon to address the events in Charlottesville. “We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides ― on many sides," he said. "It’s been going on for a long time in our country, not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama, it’s been going on for a long, long time.”

He further stated, “We wanna get the situation straightened out in Charlottesville and we want to study it. We want to see what we’re doing wrong as a country where things like this can happen.”