Protesters take over Charlottesville City Council meeting

More than a week after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., officials from the town held their first City Council meeting — an event that was soon taken over by protesters targeting officials for their response to the violent event, according to The Daily Progress.

Protesters and community members packed into the meeting to air their grievances about how officials handled the rally, describing their injuries and violent experiences at the event.

“Why did you think you can walk in here and do a business-as-usual meeting after what happened on the 12th?” City Council candidate Nikuyah Walker said at the meeting, according to The Daily Progress.

{mosads}Though the Council agreed to cover the town’s Confederate statues of Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson with black material to mourn Heather Heyer — the woman who was killed at the rally — the meeting went to chaos, according to The Daily Progress.

Within 30 minutes, the Council left for a back room to regroup before returning to address the crowd.

Two women stood up and held a banner that read “Blood on your hands.” Protesters called for the town’s mayor, Mike Signer (D), to resign. The meeting lasted until after 11 p.m., even after the mayor attempted to end the meeting early, according to the news outlet.

Protesters at the meeting took issue with the fact that officials allowed the original “Unite the Right” rally to take place and blamed police for not stepping in soon enough to stop violent clashes between the white supremacists and counterprotesters.

They also pushed for faster action on removing the statues, despite court injunctions banning the city officials from taking actions on the statue removal until the Virginia state legislature approves the removal.

The college town was rocked by violence on Aug. 12 when a rally held by white supremacist groups was met with counterprotesters. Heyer was killed in the violence and at least 19 others were injured.