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BERKELEY — Fireworks boomed and smoke filled the air in downtown Berkeley on Sunday as hundreds of counter-protesters confronted several dozen far-right demonstrators, sparking a tense showdown that led to multiple arrests but no major injuries.
Anti-fascist protesters surrounded and shouted down the outnumbered alt-right demonstrators, some of whom wore Army fatigues and combat boots, as they gathered at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park for a “No To Marxism in Berkeley” rally — the latest in a series of standoffs taking place all over the country.
Protesters stood inches apart, screaming in each other’s faces, and in some cases pushing and shoving one another. Berkeley police had arrested 20 people as of Sunday evening — mostly on suspicion of carrying prohibited weapons. Two people taken into custody had scrapes and bloody faces in their mug shots. Police reported three minor injuries, all of which were treated at the scene.
Officer Byron White, Berkeley police public information officer, said he was optimistic that there were few injuries. “But we’d prefer that there is no property damage and no one gets hurt,” White said. “People should be able to come out to a demonstration and express themselves freely.”
Protesters threw homemade fireworks at officers in the area of Milvia and Center streets, prompting police to deploy a smoke canister, White said. As of Sunday afternoon, police reported protesters also had vandalized more than 20 cars, all of which were Berkeley city vehicles — smashing their windows and setting one on fire — and burned three dumpsters.
The city, under the authority of an emergency ordinance passed earlier this week, prohibited protestors from bringing weapons, signs mounted on sticks or other potentially dangerous items into the area around the park. Masks also were prohibited. Even so, police confiscated dozens of items Sunday, including homemade fireworks; a sledgehammer with a rusty, metal head; wooden poles wrapped with black cloth; black helmets; shields; and pepper spray or mace. Some protesters tried to smuggle in rocks by taping them to the back of their signs, White said.
We are confiscating weapons and making arrests. pic.twitter.com/YisxhW4FM0
— Berkeley Police (@berkeleypolice) August 5, 2018
Police apprehended a truck full of weapons that was trying to access the protest area around 10 a.m. Officers arrested the occupants and confiscated about 30 banned items from the vehicle, White said.
White wouldn’t disclose whether the people caught with weapons were alt-right demonstrators, anti-fascist protesters, or both.
The far-right demonstrators who gathered in the park Sunday said they were there to stamp out communism in the U.S.
“Go to hell, you commie scum,” Contra Costa resident Amber Cummings, who organized the alt-right demonstration, boomed through a bullhorn.
In response, several hundred counter-protesters turned out to protest fascism.
“I am here because we have to have a counter-protest to the far-right fascists,” said 64-year-old retiree Luma Nichol, a member of the Freedom Socialist Party. “It is important we outnumber them. Hitler himself said he could have been stopped when he only had small groups of supporters.”
#berkeley pic.twitter.com/jbI0uB6k8z
— Thomas Peele (@thomas_peele) August 5, 2018
Counter-protesters shouted “Nazis go home,” and “Charlottesville never again,” drowning out what the far-right demonstrators were yelling back.
Far-left bookstore Revolution Books set up a sign and display of books at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. People affiliated with the bookstore chanted, “America was never great,” and dragged an American flag along the ground.
In response, far-right protesters ripped down the bookstore’s display.
Meanwhile, additional counter-protesters gathered a few blocks away at Ohlone Park and marched through downtown Berkeley. Police blocked off Martin Luther King Jr. Way and other streets surrounding the park.
One group of counter-protesters showed up wearing red T-shirts identifying them as members of the Democratic Socialists of America, and carrying small signs that said, “Always anti-fascist.”
Another group used the rally to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policy, carrying signs that said, “No human being is illegal.”
Others wore “Black Lives Matter” T-shirts. A woman walked up to a group of Alameda County Sheriff’s Office deputies carrying a sign that said, “Cops and Klan go hand in hand.” She stared at the deputies, and then walked away.
Dozens of law enforcement officers from agencies including the Berkeley Police Department, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Oakland Police Department, Hayward Police Department and San Leandro Police Department were on the scene in riot gear. They intervened to separate protesters when confrontations got physical, and made arrests.
https://twitter.com/berkeleypolice/status/1026206501638090752
Sunday wasn’t the first time Berkeley has hosted clashes between alt-right and anti-fascist protesters. Demonstrations here early last year after the election of President Donald Trump turned bloody, with rocks and fireworks thrown and people beaten and maced. Twenty people were arrested at the April 15 rally that was dubbed “the battle of Berkeley.”
But the alt-right’s last attempt at a rally a year ago largely fizzled as hundreds of anti-fascist demonstrators, known as antifa, flooded the area.
Berkeley became a target of the alt-right shortly after Trump’s 2016 election victory. Its members began protesting at Cal, calling the university a center for liberal indoctrination. They also have made claims that the city is a hotbed of new communism, and several times have stormed Revolution Books.
The tense scene Sunday in Berkeley unfolded a day after police in Portland, Oregon, had used flash-bang grenades and other measures to break up similar protests there. The Oregonian reported that police in riot gear fired flash-bang grenades at counter-protesters who were throwing objects at police and had refused to disperse.
Joey Gibson, leader of the far-right group Patriot Prayer and a fringe Republican candidate in Tuesday’s open U.S. Senate primary in Washington, said he wouldn’t attend Sunday. At least one other alt-right group, from Arizona, also pulled out of the Berkeley event.
In Berkeley, police closed off more streets Sunday than for past demonstrations.
“Some of the past events have gotten quite chaotic,” White said, “and we certainly don’t want anybody to get hurt by a car speeding past or worse.”
