In San Francisco, Saturday, peaceful protests from Alamo Square to the Mission District to Civic Center Plaza showed solidarity against racism and prejudice — even as events organized by right-wing organizations failed to materialize.
But another demonstration yesterday at Berkeley’s Civic Center did include outbursts of violence — and a dramatic incident when Al Letson, host of the Reveal podcast from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, physically interposed himself between a right-wing protestor and a crowd of angry anti-fascist activists.
Someone dives on top of another guy being beaten by Antifa, begging them to stop, fleeing behind police lines. Intra-left blows exchanged. pic.twitter.com/bz2zFEB25j
— Jack Smith IV (@JackSmithIV) August 27, 2017
"I saw someone pull out a flag pole and begin to bring it down and hit him with it. When I watched that, it scared me, I thought, 'They're gonna kill him.'"
You can listen to a conversation about the Berkeley protest between KALW News Director Ben Trefny and Al Letson here: