NEWSWEEK
Charlottesville cops refused to protect synagogue from armed neo-Nazis
Charlottesville Police Refused to Protect Synagogue From Nazis, so Jewish Community Hired Armed Security for First Time
The Jewish community in Charlottesville hired armed security to protect its synagogue for the first time after local police declined to provide a guard for the site despite hundreds of white supremacists congregating on the town over the weekend for a rally that resulted in the murder of counter-protester Heather Heyer.
Alan Zimmerman, president of the Congregation Beth Israel in the Virginia town, wrote a
blog post published on Monday evening following the violent scenes on Saturday that resulted in a car-ramming attack that took place just 200 feet from the place of worship.
He described the fear he felt in the presence of white supremacists, who rallied around anti-Semitic slogans, as 40 members of the community prayed in the synagogue, without support from the local authorities.
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The police department promised to provide “an observer” near the building but Zimmerman says it “was not kept” by the force, leaving the congregation vulnerable to assault as they worshipped.
“For half an hour, three men dressed in fatigues and armed with semi-automatic rifles stood across the street from the temple,” he wrote. “Had they tried to enter, I don’t know what I could have done to stop them, but I couldn’t take my eyes off them, either.”
Not only did armed protesters stand across from the synagogue, but neo-Nazis paraded past the building, shouting anti-Semitic slogans, a horrible reminder of Nazi Germany’s persecution and mass slaughter of European Jews.
“Several times, parades of Nazis passed our building, shouting, 'There's the synagogue!' followed by chants of 'Sieg Heil' and other anti-Semitic language. Some carried flags with swastikas and other Nazi symbols,” Zimmerman wrote.
This was before James Alex Fields Jr. plowed his car into protesters in the town, leaving a scene of carnage that has sparked outrage across the United States, and the wider western world.
The fact is that all the Charlottsville police did is watch, and only were FORCED to move after a child was mowed down by a NAZI who's friends were getting beaten up and attacked with flame throwers. This is a civil rights investigation as the rights of the people were violated by the police who they TRUSTED to protect them