California police panned for slow response to Capitol clash
The authorities in Sacramento, California have said that around ten people were injured on Sunday after violence started between a white supremacist group and counter-protesters in the city.
The police say nobody was arrested as a result of the altercation. At least 10 victims have been hospitalized with what the Sacramento Fire Department characterized as “critical trauma stab wounds”.
According to The Sacramento Bee newspaper, the stabbing spree broke out between some 25 neo-Nazis who had permission to protest on the capitol’s west steps and more than 150 anarchists and “anti-fascist” counterprotesters.
CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader says the pair met for about two hours Monday to discuss lessons they can learn from the violence that sent 10 people to area hospitals.
Granada of the Highway Patrol told NBC News that the groups clashed immediately after meeting, triggering a lockdown at the capitol. A related violent clash happened at a Klu Klux Klan rally near Los Angeles earlier this year, when counter-protesters confronted Klan members and chaos ensued.
After the protest, Traditionalist Worker Party leader Matthew Heimbach said in a statement broadcast by CNN that “the anti-fascists used knives, bottles, bricks and chunks of concrete they broke off a construction site”. Granada said that another group appeared to stop them group from carrying on their permit.
TWP vice chairman Matt Parrott, who was at the rally, blamed “leftist radicals” for the violence.
“Regretfully, one of our men was injured and is now in the hospital”, the Traditionalist Worker Party said in a statement on its website.
Law enforcement was slow to protect people who were attacked and slow to get them medical help, Vellucci said. “With our folk on the brink of becoming a disarmed, disengaged, and disenfranchised minority, the time to do something was yesterday!” McPhail said a group showed up to demonstrate against them. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
Be proactive – Use the “Flag as Inappropriate” link at the upper right corner of each comment to let us know of abusive posts.