https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AOx7NMbMkU

In a nutshell, Democrat officials set up protest zones for the counter-protestors (ANTIFA) in two zones right up against the pro-Robert E. Lee statue protestors, instead of apart and separated by police, as they are at more responsibly city-approved/orchestrated protests in other cities.
So inevitably, they would clash.
And responsible city planning for the protest and adequate placement of law enforcement would have prevented it, and even (at 10:30 in the video) would have prevented the driver's ability to strike the crowd with his car.

So at every point, Democrat officials set up the event to inevitably lead to a violent clash, which they wanted, so the news coverage would be about the violence, and not the issues raised by the protestors.