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Most of the demonstrations held on April 15, which was set aside
by progressives for marches to demand that Donald Trump reveal
his tax returns, were peaceful. The notable exception was the
city of Berkeley, California — often described as the most
liberal community in the nation — where things rapidly descended
into a street fight between radical right-wingers and more left-
leaning counterprotesters.

A group of hard-right extremists came to Berkeley to hold a
rally in support of Trump. While they are, of course, claiming
that they only resorted to violence in self-defense, it’s clear
from the social-media organizing done ahead of time that their
intention was to start a riot.

David Neiwert of the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote in a blog
post:

On social media, the organizers and supporters called it “the
Next Battle of Berkeley,” a chance to gain revenge for an
earlier event on the University of California campus that they
believed had infringed on conservatives’ free speech rights: In
February, a scheduled appearance by alt-right provocateur Milo
Yiannopoulos was shut down by rock-throwing “antifascist”
protesters.

One Twitter user also documented the way that alt-right folks
were instructing one another in how to smuggle weapons past the
police.

They wanted a fight and a fight they got. Eleven people were
injured, and six were hospitalized. One white supremacist
identified as Nathan Damigo was filmed sucker punching a young
woman.

THE YOUNG WOMAN IS A LESBIAN "PORN STAR" WHORE.

It’s tempting to write off this event as something unique to the
Berkeley area. The area has a robust “antifa” presence, which is
the name given to a small group of youthful anarchist-leftist
sorts who tend to reject nonviolent approaches in favor of
aggressive confrontation. The white nationalists and fascists
knew full well that going to Berkeley meant they would be met
with an aggressive response. If they had tried the same stunt
in, say, New York, it probably wouldn’t have devolved into a
violent melee like it did in Berkeley.

But while this particular situation might not have happened
anywhere else, now that it has, there’s good reason to worry
that the violence could spread. By staging this street fight in
Berkeley, the alt-right sent a message to its sympathizers
across the country, encouraging them to start organizing
brownshirt efforts of their very own.

For one thing, while there were 21 arrests at this particular
street fight, most of the right-wing fighters — including,
apparently, Damigo — walked away scot-free and full of pride
about this supposed victory, as Mother Jones reporter Shane
Bauer recorded on Twitter.

Bauer also obtained video footage of his confronting Berkeley
police about not doing more and finding that these cops were
largely uninterested in a conversation about their
responsibility to shut down political violence.

The message that alt-right sympathizers across the country are
likely hearing is that this means they can kick the crap out of
anti-Trump protesters — even ones who are demonstrating
peacefully — and not worry too much about being held accountable
by police for their behavior. The fact that Jeff Sessions,
Trump’s attorney general, has made a showy display out of his
utter lack of interest in police accountability only makes this
situation more worrisome.

Beyond that, the whole debacle is a marketing coup for wannabe
brownshirts. White nationalists and other far-right types have
been crowing about their “victory” on social media, with many
portraying themselves as tough and manly for their behavior.
That message will have resonance for the alt-right crowd, which
primarily consists of youngish men who have a lot of anxiety
about manliness and an intense desire to prove their manhood. To
drive home the gendered nature of this message, one female
militant right-winger was theatrically “protected” by a group of
men, helping drive home the message to anxious young men that
the best way to prove their manhood is to use violence against
Trump’s political opponents.

As historian Rick Perlstein has pointed out in The Washington
Spectator, the amount of online chatter demanding violence
against progressives seems to have increased dramatically in the
past few months. As has been the case with fascist violence in
the past, the hard right excuses its calls for violence by
citing “self-defense.”

As Perlstein noted, the story that these hard-right forces are
telling themselves is that “the left has escalated its
resistance to Trump into literal war, so Trump supporters must
be prepared to resort to violence to oppose it.”

The images from Saturday’s melee demonstrate the paper-thin
nature of this excuse, especially the video of Damigo punching
an unarmed woman. (One of his supporters, conservative
commentator Gavin McInnes, defended him by saying the victim’s
clothing disqualified her as a woman.) But this is the
“alternative facts” era, so the laughable transparence of the
self-defense excuse hardly matters to those who spout it. All
that matters is that they have some pretext, no matter how thin,
for their violent urges.

All of which is why there’s reason to worry about this violence
spreading. This event in Berkeley showed that violence is
possible, that most right-wingers who enact it won’t face any
consequences, and that beating up progressives is a quick and
easy way for young alt-right types to gain praise from their
fellows. These fledgling brownshirts may have gotten started by
beating up antifas, who are an unsympathetic target. Now that
they’ve tasted blood, there’s reason to fear they will feel
empowered to spread the violence around.

Amanda Marcotte
Amanda Marcotte is a politics writer for Salon. She's on Twitter @AmandaMarcotte

Comments:

Steve Hughes · Surrey, British Columbia
Antifa was lobbing bricks, M-80s smokebombs into the crowds
randomly with no regard for who they hit...at a freedom of
speech rally. They asked for a fight and got it. Don't feel
sorry for them.
Like · 283 · Apr 18, 2017 2:53am

David Russell · Carleton University
Well it's about time someone knocked the shit out of some of
those Antifa clowns. They're too dumb to realize they're the
actual fascists....
Like · 130 · Apr 18, 2017 3:31am

Matt Fetterley
It's about time these Trump thugs lost one of their own
Like · 25 · Apr 18, 2017 3:52am

Bruce Powell Majors · Works at Writers
Tim Troy Stalonist eyes are still crusted with Obama juice from
8 years of felching him.
Like · 26 · Apr 18, 2017 4:33am

http://www.salon.com/2017/04/18/pro-trump-rioters-got-away-with- beating-anti-fascists-in-berkeley-and-they-likely-wont-stop-
there/


TAGS: ANTI-TRUMP PROTESTS, ANTIFAS, AUTHORITARIANISM, BATTLE OF
BERKELEY, BERKELEY RIOT, DONALD TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP PROTESTS,
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RACISM, WHITE NATIONALISM, POLITICS NEWS, MEDIA NEWS, NEWS, LEFT-
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OUT OF SCHOOLS, FUCK GLOBAL WARMING, HANG JERRY BROWN, HANG
NANCY PELOSI TOO, BEAT CHUCK SCHUMER WITH A BASEBALL BAT, SANDY
HOOK IS AN OBAMA LIE, FAGGOTS HATE WOMEN, THE CLINTONS SOLD
NUCLEAR MATERIAL TO RUSSIA, LORETTA LYNCH NEEDS TO GO TO JAIL,
5.7 MILLION ILLEGAL OBAMA VOTES IN 2008
 

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