The Anti-Racism Protesters' Decision to Turn North onto Fourth Street

At the pretrial hearing of James Fields on December 14, 2017, case agent Detective Steven Young testified that the anti-racism protesters decided in the following manner to turn from Water Street left -- i.e. north -- onto Fourth Street.

They were just marching ... simply marching east on Water Street in a celebratory mood. They were singing songs, and there was a sense of victory throughout the crowd.

At Fourth and East Water Street, the crowd came to a halt. There’s a little bit of confusion as far as where they would go next. At one point, someone said, "we always go left", and many people started chanting "go left, go left".

Just before this, a maroon van, a black pick-up truck and a white ragtop sedan made their way south on Fourth Street from Market Street to Water Street. As the crowd converged right there at Fourth and Water, these vehicles were forced to stop. The black pick-up truck parked on the side of the road, whereas the maroon van and the white ragtop sedan, stayed at the intersection on Fourth Street just north of Water Street and they remained there for a few minutes.

(Page 18, line 23, through Page 19, line 14)

The red boxes mark the streets relevant to this discussion.

The Unite the Right protesters had walked east on Water Street and then turned north onto Fifth Street.

The anti-racism protesters likewise walked east on Water Street, far behind the Unite the Right protesters. However, the anti-racism protesters turned north onto Fourth Street.

Third Street and Fifth Street were pedestrian-only streets. Permanent obstacles prevented any vehicle traffic on those two streets.

Fourth Street was a street for vehicles traveling one-way south. The decision to turn north onto Fourth Street enabled Fields to drive south into the crowd of anti-racism protesters.

If the anti-racism protesters had turned north onto pedestrian-only Third Street or onto pedestrian-only Fifth Street, then Fields would not have been able to drive his car into their crowd.

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Young's testimony indicates that the decision to turn north onto Fourth Street was made spontaneously, simply because someone said "we always go left".

They had to turn left onto narrow, ugly Fourth Street ...

The view north from the intersection of Water and Fourth.

... instead of turning left onto wider, rather beautiful Fifth Street.

The view north from the intersection of Water and Fifth

Obstacles at the intersection of Fifth and Main prevent vehicles from traveling south. (Click on the images to enlarge them.)

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The following video shows a video that was made by a pedestrian standing on the southern sidewalk of Water Street, about a half-block west of Fourth Street. This pedestrian is pointing his camera westward, toward the protesters who are walking eastward toward Fourth Street.

Watch the following video beginning at 13:00. From that point for the first minute, the protesters are spaced and are walking at a normal pace. Then at about 14:00, the protesters gradually became less spaced and slow down, because the way forward on Water Street past Fourth Street has been impeded by the left turn.

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Update on March 5, 2018

The above video is no longer available because YouTube has purged all the files of American Everyman (Scott Creighton), who created and posted it. I'll try to find the video elsewhere or find some other suitable video.

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At about 14:45, the protesters come to a complete stop. By this time, the intersection of Fourth and Water has filled with protesters, who are making a slow turn north onto Fourth.

Continue watching the above video to 15:30. The video shows north pointing downward, so I have made a screenshot and flipped it so that north is pointing upward. (Click the image to enlarge it.)

The protesters turning from Water Street north onto Fourth Street

The protesters had been walking east on Water, but their way forward was blocked, so they had to turn north onto Fourth Street.

You might think that their way forward was blocked by the cars on the intersection's east side. However, the protesters had been walking on the street's south side with the flow of traffic. Therefore the protesters' way forward on Water was not blocked by cars or barriers.

Now watch the above video from 21:00 to 21:15. (Keep in mind that north is pointed downward in the video.) As the protesters scatter from the intersection as Fields' car drives into the intersection, you will see that the way forward on Water was not blocked physically.

Again I have flipped a screenshot so that north points upward. As a car enters the intersection from the north, protesters inside the intersection scatter freely toward the east on Water Street.

An a vehicle enters the intersection southward from Fourth Street,
protesters scatter freely eastward onto Water Street

As far as the public knows, no police officers were involved in the decision to turn north onto Fourth Street. The decision was made entirely by someone leading the anti-racism protesters.

I suppose that the police might have asked the anti-racism protesters' leaders to turn north onto Fourth Street in order to keep those protesters separate from the Unite the Right protesters who had turned north onto Fifth Street. If the the police had asked the anti-racism leaders to turn north on Fourth, then the leaders could have simply given that reason to their followers. Instead, however, the reason that the leaders gave was We always turn left.