A message against hate
The Bay Area is on edge about two upcoming far-right rallies. On Saturday, the Patriot Prayer group of Portland, Ore., has a pending permit for a rally at Crissy Field. The group has often rallied with militias and white nationalist groups around the country.
The very next day, a No to Marxism in America rally, planned by right-wing organizers, will take place at Berkeley’s Civic Center Park.
Local officials are outraged, and residents are too. Berkeley has already endured three far-right demonstrations this year, and two of them turned violent. And after a bloody white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., that left one counterprotester dead and about 20 injured, no one is feeling welcoming toward groups with a hateful message.
Mayor Ed Lee, state Sen. Scott Wiener, and state Assemblymen Phil Ting and David Chiu, all San Francisco Democrats, sent letters to the National Park Service expressing anger and concern about the decision to grant Patriot Prayer a permit. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, both California Democrats, called on the Park Service to reconsider.
The public, too, has weighed in — comments have poured in to the Park Service, asking it to deny the permit. The concerns are understandable, especially after Charlottesville. It’s certainly concerning that the National Park Service appears to have issued a preliminary permit for the rally without first coordinating with local law enforcement about a security plan.
But legal experts have cautioned against denying or revoking the Crissy Field permit, and there may not be any choice but to allow it to go forward. One of the foundations of free speech is to preserve the right to express unpopular, even repugnant, viewpoints. All is not lost, however. A far-right group rallied on the Boston Common last weekend, despite repeated statements from the mayor and local residents that they were unwelcome.
The group decided to show up anyway. Counterprotesters vastly outnumbered the rally attendees, who were safely escorted away by police. While there was a modest number of arrests for disorderly conduct, the incident wasn’t marred by violence or hopelessness.
Boston gave the country hope that the nation can allow the expression of fringe beliefs through proper security planning and peaceful counterprotests that put a community’s commitment to genuine American values on full display.