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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 2017
Bay area leaders strive to protect speech, prevent violence
Dueling rallies
pose challenges
By PAUL ELIAS and
JANIE HAR
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO —
Police and civic leaders in the
cradle of America’s free speech
movement will struggle to bal-
ance liberty of expression with
safeguards against violence as
demonstrators with varying
political viewpoints travel to
the San Francisco Bay Area for
dueling rallies throughout the
weekend.
On Saturday, a politically
conservative group called
Patriot Prayer will host a “free-
dom rally” near the foot of the
Golden Gate Bridge, over the
vociferous objections of San
Francisco’s Mayor Ed Lee
and other Democratic lead-
ers who say the group invites
hate. On Sunday, a transsexual
supporter of President Donald
Trump plans a “No to Marx-
ism in America” event in a
downtown city park in nearby
Berkeley.
Opponents will mobi-
lize too, including clowns and
drag queens as well as an anti-
Trump organization that has
sometimes supported violent
tactics.
The challenge for law
enforcement comes after an
Aug. 12 rally of white suprem-
acists in Charlottesville, Vir-
ginia that turned deadly, kill-
ing one counter-protester and
two state troopers. Police in
both California cities tradition-
ally have given demonstrators
a wide berth, even when ral-
lies in recent years turned vio-
lent as protesters from both the
left and the right have punched
people, destroyed property and
engaged in violence.
But the deaths and inju-
ries in Charlottesville have
police, civic leaders and civil
rights groups in the San Fran-
cisco area and across the
United States rethinking how
to respond to hate speech and
how to manage competing
protests.
The American Civil Liber-
ties Union said it will no lon-
Anda Chu /San Jose Mercury News
Pepper spray is used as anti and pro-Donald Trump protesters clash during competing demonstrations at Martin Lu-
ther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley, Calif., in April.
AP Photo/Eric Risberg
Crissy Field is the site of a rally Saturday by the conservative
group Patriot Prayer. Northern California police and civic leaders
are hoping for calm, but bracing for violence this weekend when
hundreds, possibly thousands, of demonstrators of all stripes
flock to the San Francisco Bay Area for dueling political rallies.
ger represent hate groups that
demonstrate with weapons after
it was criticized for persuad-
ing a judge to let the Charlot-
tesville protest go forward. In
Boston last weekend, police
successfully separated tens of
thousands of people shouting
anti-Nazi and anti-KKK slo-
gans who showed up to protest
a much smaller conservative
“free speech” rally — but draw-
ing some complaints that the
speakers didn’t get to be heard.
“We’re in an interesting sit-
uation no question about it,
where the Bay Area, known
for its protection of speech is
also known for how much it
deplores discrimination and
hate speech,” said Julie Nice,
a constitutional law professor
at the University of San Fran-
cisco School of Law.
She said police are in a
tough spot because they are
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez
A demonstrator guards the speakers area during
a rally for free speech in Berkeley, Calif., in April.
constitutionally obligated to
protect even hateful speech
until the point that speech
crosses the line into violence.
In the San Francisco area,
protesters this weekend will
face more restrictions and
beefed-up police powers than
in the past. The Berkeley City
Council has expanded the
authority of police to confis-
cate eggs, sticks and other
perceived weapons, a posi-
tion defended by Berkeley’s
mayor despite the politically
liberal city’s reputation as the
birthplace of the free speech
movement and a bastion of
tolerance.
Mayor Jesse Arreguin said
this week he is tired of his city
being targeted by people who
show up in military wear and
support positions that he calls
anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim,
and anti-gay.
“We have gone above and
beyond to facilitate the right
for all voices to be heard. What
we don’t stand for is violence,
what we don’t stand for is van-
dalism and we don’t stand for
thuggery,” he said. “What we
don’t tolerate is people using
the concept of freedom of
speech to commit violence.”
Student activism was born
during the 1960s free-speech
movement at Berkeley, when
thousands of students at the
university there mobilized to
demand that the school drop its
ban on political activism. More
recently, the University of Cal-
ifornia at Berkeley has come
under criticism for what some
have characterized as suppres-
sion of unpopular views.
In February, officials at
the University of California at
Berkeley were forced to cancel
a talk by right-wing provoca-
teur and Trump supporter Milo
Yiannopoulos after black-clad
protesters hurled smoke bombs
and sparked a huge bonfire.
Amber Cummings, who
is organizing the rally against
Marxism, said racists and hate
groups are not invited to her
Sunday event. But the anti-
Trump group By Any Means
Necessary has vowed to shut
down the Berkeley rally and
authorities worry the two sides
could clash.
In San Francisco, the park
service issued a permit for the
Portland, Oregon-based Patriot
Prayer gathering, but banned
more than two dozen items,
including guns, helmets and
tiki torches. They’re also work-
ing on a plan to keep rally-go-
ers and opponents separated at
Crissy Field.
San Francisco cannot block
the event because the park is
on federal land. But Mayor Ed
Lee has urged people to stay
away.
“I ask that people avoid
going to Crissy Field and
engaging with members of
Patriot Prayer because that is
precisely what they wish us
to do and I don’t want to dig-
nify their message of hate and
their mission of division in our
city of love of compassion,”
Lee told a Wednesday news
conference.
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