The point for this post is the lack of police presence. Given that there was reportedly a force of 1,000 assembled in Charlottesville, including the Virginia State Police and the National Guard, it's hard to believe there weren't enough officers on-hand to enforce a pedestrian traffic scheme and control the streets well enough to separate the protesters when the dispersal order was given.

Nor is it a stretch to imagine that the vehicular attack could have been prevented entirely with such a scheme. It was because the counter-protesters were left to go wherever they wanted on the streets around the park, with no police controls in place, that James Fields was able to get at them with his Dodge Challenger.

What happened? Why weren't the police controlling the vehicle traffic and the exit paths for the protesters?