Left-wing activists downplay violence
Antifa protesters defied smaller ‘alt-right’ group
BERKELEY >> A day after protesters clashed in downtown Berkeley, left-wing organizers downplayed the pockets of violence carried out by masked members of an anti-fascist group and vowed to continue their resistance against white nationalists and members of the “alt-right.”
Civil rights attorneys, clergy and members of the group Refuse Fascism on Monday instead called attention to the hours of peaceful protests on Sunday, where the political left greatly outnumbered supporters of President Donald Trump.
“We want people in this city to know if you want to know what’s going on, come out to the streets and join us,” said Xochitl John-
son, of Refuse Fascism, at the news conference Monday afternoon.
Thirteen people were arrested on suspicion of various offenses Sunday, as members of the militant anti-fascist group antifa fought “alt-right” and Trump supporters. Videos of the skirmishes captured black-clad antifa or anti-fascist protesters chasing Trump supporters and jumping over police barriers, some armed with weapons.
Al Letson, a radio host for Reveal, an East Baybased news outlet, said he watched as Joey Gibson, a leader of the right-wing Patriot Prayer group, exchanged taunts with members of antifa until “somebody took the bait.” As protesters chased Gibson, who ran toward police, Letson noticed on Allston Way four or five masked people beating a man who appeared to be a Trump supporter.
In a video of a beating, Letson is seen lying on the man to diffuse the fight: “I was telling people to stop,” he said.
Preventing violence
Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin and police Chief Andrew Greenwood defended criticism that police were too lax in how they handled the protest. In a statement issued Monday, Arreguin said, “the actions taken by the police were necessary to de-escalate and prevent further violence from taking place.”
On Sunday, police in Berkeley maintained a strict perimeter around the area in the beginning of the afternoon, including enforcing an emergency city rule outlawing sticks and other potential weapons from the park. Fifty officers were spread out at the area’s four entrances, according to the Daily Californian.
But antifa protesters — armed with sticks and shields and clad in shin pads and gloves — largely routed the police security checks, and by 1:30 p.m. police reportedly left the security line at the Center Street and Milvia Street entrance to the park. Greenwood told the Associated Press the decision was strategic — a confrontation was sure to spark more violence between the protesters and police.
“No need for a confrontation over a grass patch,” Greenwood said.
Similar criticisms of inaction were leveled against police after an April 15 altright and pro-Trump “free speech” rally in Civic Center Park, and a Feb. 1 protest at UC Berkeley against an announced appearance by Milo Yiannopoulos, former editor of the right-wing website Breitbart.
Civil rights attorney Dan Siegel lauded police for acting to defuse the situation by beginning to clearing out Civic Center Park at about 2:30 p.m., given that the remaining Trump supporters were heavily outnumbered.
“It was getting tense across the barricades,” Siegel said. “It almost seems like (Trump supporters) wanted to get beat up.”
About 4,000 attended Sunday’s demonstrations; about 100 were members of antifa, and a couple of dozen were President Trump supporters and members of other right-wing groups. Other local leaders said that peaceful demonstrators from the left far outnumbered members of antifa, who were blamed for instigating skirmishes with far-right marchers.
“I think it’s a specious argument to try to focus so much on antifa when there were over 4, 5, 6,000 people, depending on who’s doing the counting, and there were no lives injured or property damaged,” said Michael McBride, pastor at The Way Christian Center in West Berkeley.
With congregation
McBride said that before he arrived, antifa protesters joined members of his congregation as they made their way to Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park.
“I know they joined our march and protests and were very deferential to our leadership as they followed us down the street,” McBride said. “I was told that they served as a buffer between some of the white supremacists.”
Meanwhile, Johnson, of Refuse Fascism, said demonstrators will return to the streets on Nov. 4 for another rally, “This Nightmare Must End: The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!”