Right-wing groups cancel San Francisco Bay Area rallies

SAN FRANCISCO — Two rightwing rallies planned for the weekend in the San Francisco Bay Area were canceled Friday, with organizers citing threats from left-wing agitators, but local officials said they remained concerned about the potential for violence.

A Saturday “freedom rally” planned near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was canceled by the group Patriot Prayer, which said it would hold a news conference at a city park instead.

Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson said his followers would instead attend an anti-marxist rally in nearby Berkeley on Sunday, but a short time later the organizer of that rally called it off.

“I am asking that no one come to my event,” Amber Cummings said in a lengthy statement issued via Facebook. She said she had “grave concerns for the safety of the people attending my event.”

Cummings said her rally was “to speak out against the political violence happening to people who do not agree” with left-wing ideology, and that the meaning was being lost as rhetoric around the rally escalated. However, she said she “alone” would still show up Sunday.

Mistrust remained high on both sides.

“We don’t’ trust this group. I never have from the beginning,” San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said of Patriot Prayer.

Lee said the group had not canceled the event in writing, so police will still be there and anywhere else they need to be to keep the city safe.