Interfaith clergy who were protesting the Unite the Right gathering say that counterprotesters like Heyer prevented the armed Nazis and alt-righters from attacking them. “We were prepared to be beaten to a bloody pulp to show that while the state permitted white nationalists to rally in hate, in the many names of God, we did not,” Charlottesville resident Rebekah Menning told Slate. “But we didn’t have to because the anarchists and anti-fascists got to them before they could get to us. I’ve never felt more grateful and more ashamed at the same time. The antifa were like angels to me in that moment.”