Policing White Supremacy: Asymmetry and Inequality in Protest Control.

This article examines how the racial and political orientations of social movements influence police preparations and actions during protest events, focusing on the 2017 Unite the Right (UTR) rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. It argues that police threat perceptions and operational responses are shaped by the degree of relational and ideological alignment between law enforcement and protest constituencies, resulting in asymmetric communication, intelligence gathering, and differential treatment of opposing groups. The analysis highlights how police engaged collaboratively with white supremacist organizers while maintaining adversarial relations with anti-racist counter-protesters (ARCP), leading to a passive policing stance that allowed violence by UTR participants. This case illustrates broader patterns of unequal protest policing rooted in historical and institutional dynamics, challenging assumptions of neutral law enforcement and underscoring the need for oversight mechanisms to address systemic disparities in threat assessment and police legitimacy.