Don't have the time to catch up with this whole thread but I will just weigh in:
Having paid a lot of attention to the last several such conflicts between the alt-right and antifa types, and having paid close attention to this event in particular - I feel confident in saying that the violence is primarily the fault of antifa and police (deliberate) mismanagement of the situation.
I think it's clear that after their attempts to shut the rally down in other ways failed (because of the federal judge doing the right thing) and after being upset at the successful torchlight march on Friday, the local officials decided they simply would not permit the rally on Saturday to go as planned. I think they deliberately failed to keep antifa at bay and deliberately forced conditions under which antifa could and would attack the alt-right, the alt-right would defend itself (and yes I acknowledge some in the alt-right like a fight and go too far, beyond just self-defense though this is rare) so that this could then, in turn, be used as justification to shut the whole thing down and prevent the rally itself.
Because I am convinced this was a deliberate strategy to prevent the rally, I would say that Heather Hayer's blood is on the local government's hands.
It's also obviously on the hands of Fields himself, who I do not believe made a deliberate choice to try to mow down antifa, but rather panicked and probably didn't see the cars in front of him and thought he could escape by plowing through. To the extent he was even thinking at all, at that stage. I've heard he has mental problems and I suspect he isn't exactly the alt-right's finest specimen. I suspect between his issues and being only 20 and being keenly aware of things like the bike lock attack at Berkeley, and what antifa always does (some really heinous stuff, they bring feces and rocks and literally try to kill people and blind people, etc.) he was probably totally terrified of being surrounded by them and having his car hit (it's been proven this was taking place to some degree before he'd hit anyone.)
I understand why he wanted to get out of there. I suspect his car was receiving particular attention because they could see in the windshield and see he was a white male in a white polo shirt. They knew what he was and he knew they knew. I get why he would take drastic measures to try to escape that situation once they started focusing in on him and hitting his car with bats and such, which did happen.
However, his approach was awful and particularly so because of the other blocked cars in front of him. If he didn't see those, though, and I doubt he did... it makes it a bit more understandable. I think that's why he backed up, he thought he was going to go through and then he couldn't. I wish he'd just backed up to begin with and I'm sure he wishes that too.
Frankly I sort of wish he'd been pulled out of the car and beaten badly before he ever hit anyone. That would keep everyone pretty clear on who the violent ones were, though of course plenty of people would still be cheering on the video of a "racist nazi getting dragged out of a car and beaten! serves him right for going to that rally!" etc.
The cops crashing in the helicopter is tragic. The woman losing her life in the car situation is tragic.
People shouldn't block streets and they definitely shouldn't surround and attack cars. It can induce panic in the driver as we have seen MANY times.
If he weren't alt-right and if this didn't have such attention on it, and especially if Hayer had survived with injuries, I think there'd be a decent chance he'd get off or get off very lightly. As it stands, I suspect he's toast. Can't help but feel bad for the guy, to have his life ruined at such a young age because of a situation he was put in by irresponsible authorities with an axe to grind and no respect for the federal judge's order or the first amendment + violent antifa leftists surrounding him and beating his car with weapons (images show several points of damage on the car already before he accelerated and hit anyone.)
I think he reacted very stupidly by driving through them like that... but if he really didn't realize there were other cars blocked up ahead, and if he really was in a full panic... well, I can't necessarily say what I'd do under the same conditions. It would certainly be scary to think you were about to be dragged out of a car and possibly murdered (I do think there's a decent chance they'd have killed him. Certainly there's a very good chance of that after the initial impact before he backed up.)
Note how they are INSTANTLY smashing his back window and attacking the car from all sides when it halts movement. And I do mean INSTANTLY. Several people with weapons, with masks, bashing the car.
That's not just a reaction to him hurting people. The normal reaction to an unexpected horrific thing where several were just injured is:
1.) Stunned shock and anguish
2.) Helping the injured / checking on peoples' condition
3.) At most, seeking to disable the vehicle and grab hold of the driver to neutralize their ability to cause further harm.
To *instantly* be bashing the car the moment it stops moving (and actually before, come to think of it) with weaponry reveals the truth of the matter:
Though they were not the entire crowd, the crowd there contained numerous hardened, violent antifa thugs who were fully prepared to destroy his vehicle and viciously attack him even prior to him hitting anyone, on the basis of who he was and how he was dressed. They would've been smashing his windows in the same way if all he'd done was nudge his car forward 4 feet and lightly knock a few of them down. Of that, I'm certain. I'm also certain some degree of this same sort of attacking was taking place before he did anything with the car they could see as a threat, and we have video and photo evidence to that effect.
All in all, a real cluster. Lots of tragedy. All could have been avoided by the authorities and the counter-demonstrators simply being decent, law-abiding people. If the cops had done their job and kept the two groups separate. If they'd gone in with a mindset like Pikeville and others have had of "we may not like this rally, but it's their right to have it and our responsibility to make sure it takes place and takes place safely" and if the counter-demonstrators had had a mindset of "we hate these white nationalists and are going to loudly make our disapproval known" instead of "we are going to bring acid, bleach, concrete filled water bottles, bladed weapons, bike locks, rocks, bricks, knives, guns and socks full of batteries and we are going to commit attempted murder on any white nationalist we get access to while wearing masks to avoid accountability" ---- then this all could have been fine.
