Internet helps cops find suspect in Berkeley rally assaults

Users of message board 4chan known for tracking down alleged wrongdoers

The violent clashes between a pro-Trump demonstration and counterprotesters on April 15 turned Berkeley, Calif., into a battleground of activists on the right and left. On a day when dozens were arrested and injured — one man with a weaponized U-lock stood out. Many threw punches. He drew blood. One attack was captured in a profanity-filled video later posted to YouTube. The bike lock flashes through the air and smashes into a man’s head with a thunk.

Berkeley police say the man hit at least seven people in the head that day, seriously injuring three.

As the police began their search for a criminal, 4chan’s anonymous message board posters began a search of their own. For them, the man with the bike lock wasn’t just the perpetrator of a violent attack.

He was a useful symbol for an increasing focus of 4chan’s hatred: the antifascists, or “antifa” activists.

Several days after the attacks in Berkeley, 4chan users claimed that the assailant was Diablo Valley College professor Eric Clanton. Last week, police arrested Clanton, 28, and charged him with four counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of wearing a mask. Clanton’s attorney, Dan Siegel, told

The Washington Post his client has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He emphasized that his client is innocent until proven guilty, but his “life has been upended” by anonymous people on the internet — particularly people on 4chan.

The users of the message board that has gained notoriety for a celebrity nude scandal, pranks and the creation and corruption of the Pepe the Frog meme are also known for their enthusiasm for identifying people they think have done wrong.

4chan regularly deletes old threads, but archived threads from the site’s /pol/ board show users dissected everything that could be discerned from videos and photos posted online of the Berkeley incident: the dark sunglasses the lock-wielding attacker wore, the book bag he carried on his shoulders, even his eyebrows.

They shared other videos that purportedly show the same man swinging the lock at other people, including one that slowed down the punishing strikes.

One user hit pay dirt: a now-deleted video of a scuffle where the man with the bike lock lost his bandanna.

His face was exposed. It wasn’t long before they claimed to connect the face to a name: Clanton.

They said they found his Facebook and his Twitter accounts, and dug up what they say was his OkCupid profile. Their unconfirmed findings were eventually picked up by prominent figures on the right, spreading the information to a much larger audience.

Clanton, who is out on bail, is scheduled to appear in court this month to set dates for the preliminary hearing. His job duties have been suspended, and he may be fired, said Siegel, his attorney. A Berkeley Police Department spokesman would not detail how investigators closed in on Clanton.

The spokesman said only that officers “got a lot of tips from the public.”