As a lifelong officer of the law, Police Chief Scott Bixby is as puzzled this morning as he was last Saturday night watching video of the Charlottesville brawl.

How, he wonders, can millions of Americans blame police officers for what happened on an ugly night in Colonial Virginia when two heavily armed behemoths clashed?

He is feeling boxed.

“This is kind of the way our society is going,” said Mr. Bixby. “Nobody takes responsibility for their own actions. There is no accountability.

“No matter what happens, people are going to spin it to fit their agenda.”

In an aside, the police chief aired frustrations about what he sees as double standards, right and left.

“I am so exasperated,” Mr. Bixby said. “Things seem not to get any better. Sometimes they get worse.”

At his second-floor desk on Duquesne, Mr. Bixby shook his handsome middle-aged head.

“We can’t win,” he says with an exhale of frustration.

“If we get involved, we are (perceived as) being brutal, (judged guilty of) using unnecessary use of force.

“And according to the opinions of some people, if they think we don’t become involved enough, they say we are taking sides.”

With skepticism fast gaining ground, the police chief laughed, shortly, hollowly.

How can police find a happy medium?

“You don’t,” said Mr. Bixby.

“No such thing.

“I don’t believe there is.

“There obviously are personal interest groups.

“People are going to look at a situation from wherever their personal perspective is. They will spin whatever happens to fit their perspective.

“It is unfortunate,” said the police chief. “But that is the way it is.”