They were there for violence only.
And why did the town agree in the first place to remove the statue?!?
And the official report on the incident stated that the chief of police directed his police officers to “let them fight”, rather than keeping the protestors and counter-protestors separated.
How did the chief of police respond to the report? He said “I don’t recall saying that” and promptly resigned. Draw your own conclusions from that.
And the town did not agree to the removal of the statues or to the renaming of the city parks. Those actions were taken by a small minority of city council members. (The statues are still there, but were shrouded for several months, until a recent court order to remove the shrouds.)