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What Did Virginia Learn From Charlottesville?

By banning weapons and closing entrances, state and local officials in Richmond are trying to avoid a repeat of the deadly clash in Charlottesville.

A 2017 report found multiple deficiencies in the police response to the protests in Charlottesville, Va.Credit...Erin Schaff for The New York Times

Opposing protesters were squeezed together. Law enforcement agencies failed to communicate. Officials falsely believed that weapons could not be banned.

These were among the problems that plagued officials in Charlottesville, Va., in August 2017, according to a report published that year on the extremist rallies where hundreds of people descended on the city and one woman was killed by a white supremacist.

Now, as law enforcement agencies and politicians in Richmond, Va., prepare for what they fear could be a similar clash on Monday at the Virginia State Capitol, they have sought to avoid the same pitfalls.

“No one wants another incident like the one we saw in Charlottesville in 2017,” Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia said at a news conference this week, as he declared a state of emergency. “We will not allow that mayhem and violence to happen here.”

The Richmond rally was originally planned as a protest against proposed state gun legislation but is expected to bring white supremacists, anti-government extremists and anti-fascists. Amid all of the soul-searching questions about race that officials in Charlottesville and other cities have wrestled with to try to stave off ugly confrontations, the 2017 report on the government response offered some concrete guidelines on security and communication.

Here are some ways that Richmond is trying to avoid a disaster on Monday:

When Mr. Northam declared the state of emergency, he also prohibited civilians who approach the Capitol from carrying weapons. “Weapon” is broadly defined: Guns, bats and torches are included, as are laser pointers, scissors and baseballs. The ban and emergency declaration are in effect until Tuesday evening.

The move did not go unchallenged. The group that is hosting the event, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, fought Mr. Northam’s executive order in court, but the State Supreme Court upheld the ban.

Mr. Northam’s ban was one of several actions the authorities have taken in recent days that is in line with the recommendations of the post-Charlottesville report, in which a former federal prosecutor described in brutal terms the failures of officials there.

In 2017, a Charlottesville police captain asked a local prosecutor whether the police could ban bats, poles and other weapons from the park where white nationalists and counterprotesters had planned to gather. The prosecutor said no, and the Charlottesville Police Department prepared for the event under the belief that it could not enforce a ban on sticks, shields or any other potential weapon.

That advice was wrong, the report found. While the city did not have the power to regulate firearms, it could have banned people from bringing other items into the park, according to the report, which also urged Virginia legislators to allow municipalities to restrict firearm possession at large protests.

The 2017 report also recommended erecting a secure perimeter with designated points of entry for large protests that might turn violent.

In Charlottesville, the report said, the police actually “generated more violence” by pushing protesters back toward the counterprotesters.

“Fixed checkpoints should be established to allow entry into the secure perimeter, much like the gates to a stadium,” the report said, adding that checkpoints would also allow authorities to prevent protesters from carrying weapons or other prohibited items inside.

That is the plan Virginia officials appear to be following for Monday: They have posted a map on Twitter and Facebook showing just one entrance to Richmond’s Capitol Square, where attendees will be screened for contraband.

Some worry that by creating a single point of entry, the authorities could force opposing groups to enter at the same time and possibly lead to violence. Law enforcement officials in Virginia are grappling with a crucial challenge: keeping the opposing groups at the rally separate while ensuring that others — potentially deterred by metal detectors and other security measures — do not flood nearby streets that are not covered by the emergency weapons ban.

Another failing of the response to the Charlottesville protests, according to the report, was that the local and state police did not coordinate their tactical plans, communications systems or chains of command, leaving both agencies unsure of what the other was doing.

The authorities expect a more unified effort on Monday, as weeks of preparation have allowed for clear communication between state and local law enforcement agencies, the governor said.

RaShall M. Brackney, who has been the Charlottesville police chief since 2018, said law enforcement agencies in Charlottesville, Lexington, Richmond and Roanoke, and in Albemarle and Henrico Counties, now meet and train regularly, along with the state police, to plan for large and potentially violent demonstrations.

“We train together and collaborate pretty often, and that’s been a lesson this region has taken to heart,” Chief Brackney said in an interview. “We live and practice our unified command and incident command system relatively frequently, either during real events or drills and training. We have all embraced the philosophy of a unified command.”

Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting.

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national news. He is from upstate New York and previously reported in Baltimore, Albany, and Isla Vista, Calif. More about Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

Rich Oppel is a national enterprise and investigative correspondent based in New York. Since joining The Times in 1999, he has also covered business, Washington, a national presidential campaign, and for six years was a war correspondent in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

  More about Richard A. Oppel Jr.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 22 of the New York edition with the headline: No Guns, No Torches: Virginia Applies the Lessons From Charlottesville. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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