MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Police failed to maintain security during August's deadly rally in the US city of Charlottesville, Virginia, the rally's organizers from the Identity Evropa organization said Thursday, pledging to defend its leaders facing lawsuits for involvement in the events.
"Identity Evropa and its leadership have been served lawsuits relating to our involvement in the Unite The Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 12th of this year… We are first embarking on the legal defense of our leaders and organization which will then allow us to file civil rights lawsuits against law enforcement and the government for their corruption and negligence on August 12th," Identity Evropa said.
According to the statement, the organization's leaders were engaged in close cooperation with law enforcement of Charlottesville to ensure the safety of the participants of the rally but "the government engaged in a crackdown before our event was even scheduled to begin."
"A state of emergency was declared and we immediately found that law enforcement failed to uphold their security commitments. Riot police forced Identity Evropa members and other attendees into hundreds of Antifa protesters without any effort to maintain peace," the statement noted.
Following the incident, two lawsuits were filed against the organizers and attendees of the rally in order to prevent violent clashes from happening again.
The clashes have sparked a debate on the Confederate flags and monuments and also resulted in criticism of President Donald Trump's attitude to the events at the white nationalist rally, who first blamed "both sides" for the violence, but later condemned all kinds of racism and supremacism.
READ MORE: Trump Condemns KKK, Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists as 'Criminals and Thugs'
