Berkeley modifies city laws to empower officials during protests

Police officers stand by as protesters face off April 15 in Berkeley. Officials changed the municipal code Friday to give the city manager the ability to issue rules at unauthorized events. Police officers stand by as protesters face off April 15 in Berkeley. Officials changed the municipal code Friday to give the city manager the ability to issue rules at unauthorized events. Photo: Noah Berger, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Noah Berger, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Berkeley modifies city laws to empower officials during protests 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

Berkeley officials have tweaked local laws to give the city more power over unauthorized demonstrations, just days before another far-right rally is planned for downtown.

The City Council passed the emergency ordinance on a 7-1 vote during a special meeting Friday evening. The move gives the city manager the power to issue rules for street events whose organizers did not obtain a permit.

The planned protest next Sunday, billed as an anticommunist rally, will be the fourth such gathering in the city this year. Pro-Trump events in March and April drew throngs of counterprotesters, including self-styled “antifascist” groups, as police struggled to prevent confrontations. But skirmishes and all-out brawls broke out, resulting in bloodied participants on both sides, a cache of confiscated weapons and numerous arrests.

Just a few of those involved have since been criminally charged by Alameda County prosecutors. Eric Clanton, a former community college professor, was charged with assault for allegedly using a bike lock to attack a supporter of President Trump. A different Trump supporter in a separate incident, Kyle Chapman of Daly City, was charged with possessing a lead-filled stick that he allegedly used to hit counterprotesters.

Law enforcement agencies from around the East Bay, who are planning to provide support and extra officers to help Berkeley police next weekend, are on high alert after a driver used his car to plow into a crowd of counterprotesters at the Aug. 12 white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

The Berkeley municipal code previously allowed officials to impose rules on unauthorized events in public parks, as they did April 15, when police prohibited an array of items — from eggs and baseball bats to ice picks and rocks — from coming into Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park.

But if demonstrators spilled onto sidewalks and streets outside the park, as they did in April, the police lost their authority to seize the weapons. The ordinance passed Friday, which immediately went into effect, eliminates that restriction, according to the proposal, to preserve “public peace, health, and safety.”

Amid objections from community members, who worried that the City Council was ceding their rights to the police, the council added several amendments to limit the new law’s scope, including a sunset date of Dec. 31. The final version also said the city manager can impose such rules only if more than 100 participants are expected.

In a blog post Friday, Mayor Jesse Arreguin echoed a call that leaders of other cities have made ahead of contentious far-right rallies: “Stay away.”

“Put simply, past incidents at Civic Center Park have resulted in significant violence as agitators use the cover of peaceful protesters to attack others, including through the use of explosives,” he wrote.

Arreguin said he is working with community organizations to create events far away from the rally where “Berkeley residents can show their opposition to racism, xenophobia and bigotry” and “be together in a safe, powerful and positive way.”