It’s far from the most important point, but we might as well debunk it now. The counter-protesters had permits. The permits were obtained by Professor Walter Heinecke of the Curry School of Education of the University of Virginia.
In this podcast from KPFA he explains why: during a past counter-protest, as soon as the alt right had finished and left, the police threatened arrest for anyone remaining. He recalled the situation where the police didn’t give sufficient time to disperse and Heinecke was determined to avoid it for this protest.
It’s a good listen for other reasons as well; he was at the University on Friday night and gives details of the confrontations on Friday night.