You got it right:
The Vice Mayoral of Charlottesville, without authority, pulled their permit. The ACLU and the organizers went to a Federal judge who ordered it be reinstated on violation of the 1st Amendment grounds. Then the morning of the event, the city officials in violation of the court order CANCELLED THE EVENT AGAIN, and forced the demonstrators from the vicinity of the statue right into the waiting ANTIFA and Black Lives Matter counter-protestors and then announced they were “standing down as it was too dangerous!”
None of this is being properly reported by the media.