Alameda County sheriff’s office catches heat for retweet of white nationalist

White nationalist Richard Spencer and his supporters clash with Virginia State Police in Lee Park after the "United the Right" rally was declared an unlawful gathering August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia. less White nationalist Richard Spencer and his supporters clash with Virginia State Police in Lee Park after the "United the Right" rally was declared an unlawful gathering August 12, 2017 in Charlottesville, ... more Photo: Photo By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Photo: Photo By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Alameda County sheriff’s office catches heat for retweet of white nationalist 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

The public information officer for the Alameda County sheriff’s office apologized Tuesday for mistakenly retweeting a video of a press conference held by a prominent white supremacist.

Sgt. Ray Kelly said he was doing research Monday night on neo-Nazi groups ahead of their planned Aug. 27 gathering in Berkeley when he accidentally retweeted Richard Spencer’s “Unite the Right” news conference to the more than 10,000 followers of the sheriff’s office.

Kelly told The Chronicle that his views “couldn’t be further” from the sentiments in the video and that he had to call his the sheriff’s IT department to undo the retweet, which remained posted for more than half an hour.

“I hit buttons at the bottom of the video and somehow it went up on our feed,” Kelly said, adding that he took full responsibility for the error. “It was a complete accident. ... It’s very embarrassing for me personally because I couldn’t feel further from how those people feel.”

The backlash on Twitter was swift, with many users saying the retweet was a tacit endorsement of racist views.

A number of local groups, including the California Immigrant Policy Center and Asian Law Caucus, planned to protest Wednesday evening in front of the sheriff’s office, saying that the retweet was part of a “disturbing pattern of racist, anti-immigrant comments and stances at the department.”

It’s common for law enforcement to collect intelligence over social media ahead of protests. That’s how local and state police in Virginia knew that white nationalist organizers of the Charlottesville gathering were planning on bringing military-grade weapons, according to interviews Gov. Terry McAuliffe has given in recent days.

In the Bay Area, Kelly said it’s part of his job to keep tabs on groups from across the political spectrum. In the past, the sheriff’s office and other agencies have followed the postings of Occupy Oakland and other affiliated groups.

“It’s important for me to know the faces of the people who are talking — who’s in the news, who they are, who’s following them and what they stand for,” Kelly said.

Police agencies in the East Bay are on high alert in the wake of the deadly car crash in Charlottesville that killed a 32-year-old woman and injured 19 people who were protesting the white nationalist groups. An Ohio man was charged with murder after authorities said he rammed his car into a line of vehicles, then fled the scene.

Kelly said the sheriff’s office, Berkeley police and other departments are putting together a “robust plan” that includes creating an area for demonstrators that vehicles can’t reach. And although Kelly said he didn’t watch much of Spencer’s news conference, he said that information gleaned online can be invaluable to preparing for potentially turbulent events.

“Social media is a very powerful platform to get real-time information,” Kelly said. “And it’s also a very unforgiving place for accidental retweets.”

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: KVeklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov