Protesting, glorifying and justifying white supremacy by the Bay

by Ann Garrison

Berkeley, California, Mayor Jesse Arreguin and the Berkeley City Council are shitting bricks. During last week’s emergency City Council meeting, Arreguin said they couldn’t sleep.

‘No-To-Marxism’-Rally-in-Berkeley-082717-poster-web-300x214, Protesting, glorifying and justifying white supremacy by the Bay, Local News & Views
The “No to Marxism in America” poster implies that Donald Trump will be with his supporters in Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Park on Saturday, Aug. 26, 2017.

He’d called the meeting so the council could vote to expand the city manager’s crowd control authority. Charlottesville and the right-left rumbles that Berkeley’s already seen this year have the mayor and the councilors terrified – understandably – that people will get killed or injured at the next one and that everyone will point the blame at them.

The immediate cause for concern is a No Marxism in America Rally and counter protests coming up on Sunday afternoon, April 27, in Downtown Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Park. The council not only passed the new crowd control measures, but also used its website to plead with its citizens to eschew Downtown Berkeley, stay home and tweet:

“In recent events, we have seen individuals come armed and armored for violence – and use peaceful protesters as a cover for violent actions. You can help by separating yourself from violence.

“Extremists use language to stir up supporters and provoke counter-protesters – generating the conflict that creates publicity for their cause. The best way to deny them the attention they seek is to not engage and avoid such events entirely.

“In an age of social media, there are many ways to assert your values and speak to the causes you support. Reaching out to organizations or individuals in need is an alternative to conflict.

“Stay away from conflict. There are many alternative ways to respond.”

The immediate cause for concern is a No Marxism in America Rally and counter protests coming up on Sunday afternoon, April 27, in Downtown Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Park.

Berkeley activists, however, will not be denied. As of Monday, Aug. 21, Bay Area Rally Against Hate, Respect Berkeley and Berkeley Antifa had all announced plans to counter protest. Respect Berkeley said they plan to assemble on Martin Luther King Way, across the street from Martin Luther King Park, at 10:00 a.m., an hour before the No Marxism in America rally-goers arrive. They added that “this is a fluid situation, so please check back and also check social media.”

Bay Area Rally Against Hate said they’d gather several blocks away on the UC campus, then decide whether or not to march on MLK Park.

Berkeley Antifa created a poster that reads as though they’re preparing for the Siege of Madrid in the Spanish Civil War: “ATTENTION ALL ANTI-RACISTS. NAZIS ARE COMING. DEFEND BERKELEY.”

‘Choose the skin tone’ of your target from three available choices: brown, browner and black

Strategic-Operations-banned-from-Urban-Shield-invites-buyers-‘choose-the-skin-tone’-of-target-brown-browner-black-300x300, Protesting, glorifying and justifying white supremacy by the Bay, Local News & Views
Strategic Operations, a vendor now banned from participating in the Bay Area Urban Shield War Games and Weapons Expo, invites potential buyers visiting their website to “choose the skin tone” of their target from three available choices: brown, browner and black.

Many appeared at Berkeley’s emergency City Council meeting to speak out against expanding the city manager’s crowd control authority, particularly because the city manager is known to side with the police in disputes with the citizenry and to support the Bay Area’s much larger white supremacist hate rally coming up on Sept. 9-11: the Urban Shield War Games and Weapons Expo.

Activists have tried and failed to get Berkeley and Oakland to pull their officers out of Urban Shield, but this year they at least managed to get the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to exclude Urban Shield vendor Strategic Operations. Media Alliance Executive Director Tracy Rosenberg argued the case at a board meeting:

“Strategic Operations promises to provide ‘battlefield immersion.’ The Bay Area is not a battlefield. Law enforcement agencies are not at war with Alameda County. The images above [Black people and Muslims] are described as humanoid live action targets and are available in a catalog on Strategic Operations’ website that asks the buyer to ‘choose the skin tone of their target’ from three available choices: brown, browner and black. This kind of blatant racism does not reflect Bay Area values.”

National Park Service ups the ante in San Francisco

The San Francisco Mayor and Board of Supervisors are also shitting bricks, and probably for more reason. The National Park Service granted Patriot Prayer a permit to hold a “Free Speech, Unity and Peace San Francisco” rally at Crissy Field on Aug. 26, the day before the “No Marxism in America” rally in Berkeley. We are now in the final month of the 50th anniversary of San Francisco’s Summer of Love, just to heighten the contradictions and make this even more ridiculous.

There’s a lot of disagreement about just who Patriot Prayer and its chief organizer Joey Gibson are, but no doubt that they attract alt-right, white supremacist militias like the ProudBoys, the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters. In Seattle, Gibson invited anyone – including women and Black Lives Matter activists – to come up on his stage and take the microphone, but San Francisco isn’t preparing for a diversity fest. We are now in the final month of the 50th anniversary of San Francisco’s Summer of Love, just to heighten the contradictions and make this even more ridiculous.

Crissy Field is on National Park Service (NPS) land. It’s part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area—on San Francisco’s northernmost shore—and it extends a quarter mile offshore into the bay. It’s a much larger expanse of open space than Berkeley’s MLK Park, and San Francisco is the Bay Area’s urban center, so it could become the site of a much larger confrontation. And, since it’s on federal property, the feds could up the ante by calling in federal law enforcement.

The National Park Service granted Patriot Prayer a permit to hold a “Free Speech, Unity and Peace San Francisco” rally at Crissy Field on Aug. 26, the day before the “No Marxism in America” rally in Berkeley.

Mayor Ed Lee first said that he thinks they’ll let the San Francisco Police handle it by themselves and promises that they’ll have every single officer in the force on the job. No vacation or discretionary absences. However, as of August 24, he was arguing with the NPS about who would be at the top of the chain of command.

Lee says that the SF Police will disarm anyone carrying weapons – even though the armed, camo-clad Oath Keepers have promised to handle security for Patriot Prayer, and despite the fact that it’s been legal to carry firearms on National Park Service land since 2010. The feds left the issue of “open carry”—carrying unconcealed firearms—up to the states, and California made “open carry” illegal in 2013.

So I wish Mayor Lee luck, even though he’s an asshat. Are the police going to stop every vehicle headed for Crissy Field and search them for weapons? Seal off the streets and make everyone walk to the park service land after a stop and frisk? I recently got Kick Mats for my car and I wouldn’t really like to get pulled over.

Freedom-Rally-Patriot-Prayer-Crissy-Field-SF-082617-poster-221x300, Protesting, glorifying and justifying white supremacy by the Bay, Local News & Views Ask the Coast Guard to stop and search any boats that anyone is sailing, rowing, paddling or whatever towards the Crissy Field shoreline? The Berkeley Police say they plan to set up checkpoints and disarm anyone on their way into Martin Luther King Park.

San Francisco’s Bethany United Methodist Church is one of several groups organizing security training for Bay Area Rally Against Hate counter protestors, and the Antifa are no doubt preparing in their own way.

So are we going to see another, larger, bloodier Charlottesville? Of course that’s what has our city governments palpitating, and there seem to be plenty of people on both sides itching for a fight while others preach nonviolence.

Stars of the alt-right movement have promised to appear in Berkeley and/or San Francisco, but there’s no central issue like Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee monument. Both sides are coming to manifest their own existential urgencies.

Indigenous activists and their supporters have renewed their demand for removal of a statue – part of the “Pioneer Monument” in San Francisco Civic Center – but no one’s organized a militant response to save it yet. The statue depicts a Spanish conqueror, a Spanish padre and a Native American at their feet.

Berkeley’s Free Speech Zone

Berkeley’s latest round of civil unrest began in February, when Breitbart columnist Milo Yiannopoulos arrived to speak to the Berkeley College Republicans. University authorities canceled the event because protestors had gathered on campus and threatened to keep Yiannopoulos from entering the designated venue.

Before it was over, Antifa ninjas – or provocateurs – had started a few street fires and broken a few windows at the Wells Fargo Bank Building in Downtown Berkeley. Donald Trump tweeted his outrage, and international media castigated UC Berkeley, home to the 1960s Free Speech Movement, for suppressing free speech.

Berkeley-police-separate-pro-Trump-Antifa-041517-300x198, Protesting, glorifying and justifying white supremacy by the Bay, Local News & Views
Berkeley police get between pro-Trump demonstrators and Antifa counter demonstrators (in black) on Saturday, April 15, 2017.

International press more recently denounced KPFA Radio-Berkeley for canceling a talk by scientific atheist Richard Dawkins, after it was revealed that he had made Islamophic statements on his Twitter page and during his current book tour. Bill Maher invited Dawkins on his late night talk show and slammed our “Berkeley radio station,” refusing to say “KPFA” because, he said, we didn’t deserve it. Maher himself has been called out for multiple Islamophic statements on his show.

Berkeley thus became one of the alt-right’s prime targets, and free speech became its rallying cry. Yiannopoulos vowed to return in the fall to stage “Milo’s Free Speech Week” in UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza, the center of campus.

He said he’d bring an army if he had to and if he could afford one. “We will hold talks and rallies and throw massive parties, all in the name of free expression and the First Amendment,” Yiannopoulos wrote on his Facebook page. “All will be welcome, regardless of political affiliation.”

In April, the university canceled Ann Coulter’s speech to preclude further unrest, after which Yiannopolous threatened to return for a whole month. He said that there’s violence at his rallies “because the left knows it’s losing. It’s losing the political battle and losing the free speech battle. And like a dog being kicked to death, it is lashing out.” Strange way to welcome people of all political affiliation to your rallies.

At the last two rumbles, police formed a line between left and right and the two sides shouted at each other across the divide. I showed up to watch and wondered whether the two sides might agree about getting out of NATO, Syria and the Koreas and shutting down the empire of bases, though I couldn’t imagine what they’d do with such congruence if it somehow emerged. Ann Coulter lambasted Trump for bombing Syria in April and said that he should concentrate on building that wall.

The Bay Area’s biggest white supremacist rally will be here in October

It’s called Fleet Week and the Blue Angels Air Show and it’s always organized to include Columbus Day in San Francisco. This year the Navy will be here Oct. 2-9. Festivities include a Columbus Day Parade, which had to be renamed the “Italian American Heritage Day Parade” for appearance’s sake.

US-Navy-Blue-Angels-300x123, Protesting, glorifying and justifying white supremacy by the Bay, Local News & Views
US Navy Blue Angels

Nevertheless, a member of the Italian American community is always selected for the honor of playing Columbus-for-a-Day and riding through North Beach in the Santa Maria float. Across the Bay in Berkeley, Native people hold an Indigenous People’s Day Pow Wow.

Fighter bomber jets perform airborne acrobatics for a whole week, and U.S. Navy destroyers, nuclear subs and nuclear aircraft carriers host public “tours of the ships,” all to glorify and justify white supremacy, American exceptionalism, endless war and mind-numbing military expense. The Navy’s fans gather at Crissy Field, the site of next Saturday’s Patriot Prayer Rally, but there’s no effort to disarm them.

Admiral Chester Nimitz created the Blue Angels Air Show in 1946, at the end of World War II, to help the Navy generate public and political support for a larger allocation of the shrinking defense budget, and he was very successful. The Navy also uses Fleet Week to recruit.

Charlottesville-protesters-counter-protest-to-preserve-Robert-E.-Lee-statue-081217-300x200, Protesting, glorifying and justifying white supremacy by the Bay, Local News & Views
Protestors counter the protest to preserve the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12, 2017.

Code Pink usually manages a minor presence on the waterfront during Fleet Week, but KPFA Radio-Berkeley and the San Francisco Bay View newspaper are usually the only outlets that cover it. Last year Veterans for Peace Vice President Gerry Conlon braved his way out into the Bay with the Navy in a sailboat called the Golden Rule that displayed a 6-foot-wide peace symbol on one of its sails. Pacifists tried to sail the Golden Rule into the Marshall Islands in 1958 to protest U.S. atmospheric testing of large nuclear bombs.

The only other protest last year arose after Blue Angels fighter bomber jets roared over the Oakland Coliseum to give Oakland Raiders fans a thrill just as Raiders quarterback Derek Carr was throwing a critical pass. Chris Harris Jr. intercepted and made a 74-yard touchdown that gave the Denver Broncos a 16-7 lead with less than seven minutes to play.

Oakland writer Ann Garrison writes for the San Francisco Bay View, Black Agenda Report, Black Star News, Counterpunch and her own website, Ann Garrison, and produces for AfrobeatRadio on WBAI-NYC, KPFA Evening News, KPFA Flashpoints and for her own YouTube Channel, AnnieGetYourGang. She can be reached at anniegarrison@gmail.com. In March 2014 she was awarded the Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza Democracy and Peace Prize for promoting peace in the Great Lakes Region of Africa through her reporting.