Anarchist rampage in Berkeley renews free speech debate

BERKELEY, Calif. — Hundreds of masked, black-clad anarchists who overwhelmed a peaceful California protest and assaulted at least five perceived political enemies have reignited the debate over ensuring free speech while protecting public safety in the city where the U.S. free speech movement was born in the 1960s.

After planned weekend rallies were violently disrupted or canceled, supporters of President Donald Trump and other politically conservative activists complained their free speech rights were blocked by liberal politicians who they say incited left-wing extremists.

When Patriot Prayer founder Joey Gibson canceled his San Francisco rally Saturday, he blamed San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Democratic U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi for falsely labeling the organization as a hate group and inciting extremism to vow violent disruption.

Others said that the violence on Sunday in nearby Berkeley, known as the U.S. heart of the free speech movement, tarnished their peaceful opposition to Trump’s policies.

“It played into the false narrative that some conservatives have spun,” about violent left-wing stifling of free speech, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said Monday, a day after the anarchists assaulted the people they thought were rightwing extremists and pepper sprayed Gibson.

Gibson’s supporters said the Berkeley police failed to protect the handful of right-wing supporters who showed up at the park Sunday afternoon by allowing the black-clad demonstrators to take over the city park without opposition. The right-wing group was outnumbered by thousands of opponents, but the rally was tense but peaceful until the anarchists arrived.

Several demonstrators tried to stop the violence and helped the assault victims escape while others screamed for the beating to stop.

The attack on the conservatives at the Berkeley park “definitely sends the wrong message,” said Ed Tisher, who came to oppose them but ended up helping a Trump supporter knocked to the ground and shielding him from more possible violence until police arrived.

Yvonne Felarca, a spokeswoman for the militant left-wing organization By Any Means Necessary, defended Sunday’s violence. She called it self-defense, though it there were no indications anyone one tried to physically harm the anarchists at the park.