COMMENTARY
If you were away or just not paying attention, perhaps you missed that the right-wing group Patriot Prayer had a permit to hold a “free speech” rally at Crissy Field Saturday. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and other officials urged the National Park Service to cancel the permit, to no avail.
About 24 hours before the rally, Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson canceled, citing safety concerns. Organizers of an “anti-Marxist” rally planned for Berkeley Sunday did the same thing and cut bait a few days early.
Nonetheless, thousands of people showed up in both cities, on both days, to say no to Nazis, white supremacists, and fascists. A few thoughts:
— Bay Area citizens did exactly the right thing: On short notice, people organized, communicated, and showed up. Thousands of people in several venues across two cities spoke their minds with their bodies. What does that mean? It means people didn’t just vent on social media. They hit the streets, and the beach, and the sidewalks, even with valid reasons to be nervous in the wake of the Charlottesville violence. Occupying real space is still the best statement of seriousness.
— It would have been better if Patriot Prayer had held its rally at Crissy Field instead of backing out. If, as leader Joey Gibson has said several times, the group were not about racism or hate-mongering, I wanted to hear it from a roster of speakers. Note that the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, has called Patriot Prayer provocateurs, trolls, and anti-government ideologues whose rallies attract plenty of white-pride ethnostate types — whom Gibson now says are not welcome. But SPLC has stopped short of labeling PP itself a hate group.
If Gibson and allies had spent the day at Crissy Field denouncing supremacists and racists the way he did in Seattle, as reported by the SPLC, it would have forced the racists who have put stock in PP to think again; it would have been a marker for all to see. People can surprise, and change. (See this story.) But if the PP roster turned out to be peppered with race-baiters, jingoists, and white supremacists, well, we’d know once and for all, wouldn’t we?
— Instead, Gibson is now free to peddle his tale of persecution. He had his chance at a huge stage, with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background, and declined. Perhaps the 11th-hour cancellation and Saturday’s “Where’s Waldo” antics (Alamo Square! Pacifica! Crissy Field after all!) were planned to provoke confrontation, or at least confusion. (There was neither.) Perhaps he canceled when he realized how few people would actually attend. Even though he was chased out of Berkeley, I still think Gibson’s excuses about safety in San Francisco were bogus; earlier in the week he praised the Crissy Field security, calling it the best situation he could have asked for (start two minutes in). You can scrutinize the final security plan, including all banned items, here.
In Berkeley Sunday, the antifa, or anarchists, or black bloc, however they’re best described, added fuel to Gibson’s own martyr narrative. They also tried to intimidate journalists and others trying to record the events. To get a taste of their tactics, check out this Twitter thread.
Antifa insist that beating up fascists is not the same as fascists committing violence. The group has a point: This resistance should not be twisted into moral equivalency with the far right — as President Trump has shamefully, disgustingly done. But it’s not helping when black-clad antifascists give people beatdowns in the street or smash up businesses. Were the people they assaulted Sunday in Berkeley Nazis? Supremacists? Trump supporters? Did the right-wingers start the fight with violence of their own, or simply show up and get jumped? Here’s African-American journalist Al Ledson’s report from Berkeley — and how he saved one right-wing protester from perhaps getting killed.
We need to be careful. Wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat at a right-wing rally (or anywhere) makes you look like a tool, in my humble opinion, but it isn’t an automatic invitation to a beating or a face full of pepper spray.
— Bottom line: San Francisco officials complained about Patriot Prayer’s permit, but the group had its chance. It blew that chance. They’ll continue to insist their free speech is being muzzled, but they’ve damaged their credibility, regardless of what went down in Berkeley. They also managed to do what Hillary Clinton could not: unite a fractious left (and probably a bunch of moderate Republicans too), at least temporarily, in the streets of San Francisco and Berkeley. Here’s what will ultimately damage Patriot Prayer’s cred even more: thousands upon thousands of people showing up peacefully, every time, just as they did in Boston, to meet them with overwhelming numbers.
Alex Lash is editor in chief of The Frisc.
