White-supremacist rally cost city at least $2.6M, preliminary estimate shows
WASHINGTON » The District of Columbia spent $2.6 million on policing and other costs related to Sunday’s white supremacist rally and the associated counterprotests, according to a preliminary estimate from the city government.
The city plans to ask the federal government to reimburse those costs. Congress budgeted $13 million this year for a fund to help Washington pay for its responses to large-scale protests and events, which are common in the nation’s capital but have become more frequent during the Trump administration.
The Unite the Right 2 rally, held on the anniversary of the deadly white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville, Virginia, attracted fewer than 40 supporters. But law enforcement responded with a massive presence to keep the white supremacists physically separated from thousands of counter protesters.
Police also had to contend with a group of antifascists, known as Antifa, who roamed the downtown area, skirmished with officers at 13th and G Streets NW, and had threatened property damage but ultimately backed down.
City officials called their response a success: No one was injured, and only one person was arrested on minor charges.
But critics say the city may have inadvertently encouraged more groups with provocative messages to come to the nation’s capital by pouring so many resources into defending the First Amendment rights of Sunday’s rally goers. Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler praised the level of police protection his group received and suggested he’d like to stage additional events in the Washington area.
Anu Rangappa, a spokeswoman for Mayor Muriel Bowser, stressed that the $2.6 million price-tag was an early estimate and not the final cost that will be charged to the federal government. She could not immediately answer if the city incurred additional expenses related to the event that cannot be reimbursed.
The initial tally comes almost entirely from the Metropolitan Police Department, which reported an estimated $2.5 million in costs related to staffing and overtime for its 3,900-member force. Washington’s Department of Public Works, Fire and Emergency Medical Services and Homeland Security and Emergency Management agencies each reported costs in the low ten thousands.
In fiscal year 2017, the federal government reimbursed the city $9.1 million for policing costs related to demonstrations and special events.
Local officials praised police for preventing a repeat of the chaos in Charlottesville last year.
D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham has said the costs were necessary to keep the city safe.
“When these two groups have come together in the past, we have seen violence,” Newsham told reporters Sunday. “You need that number of officers to make sure no one gets hurt.”
But some counterprotesters say they’re troubled by how the city was willing to spend millions to ensure a white supremacist rally could proceed.
“It does highlight the extent to which both the Bowser administration, MPD and law enforcement in D.C. will go to protect people and systems that uphold white supremacy,” said April Goggans, an organizer for the Black Lives Matter D.C. “You have advocacy groups fighting every day for just hundreds of thousands of dollars for programs that touch thousands of D.C. residents.”
Washington’s expenses on Sunday don’t reflect the total cost to taxpayers.
Four other agencies also responded to the rally: the Virginia State Police, Fairfax Police, WMATA and U.S. Park Police. The Washington Post has requested each of those agencies provide a breakdown in costs related to the white supremacist rally, and has yet to receive figures.