As former Diablo Valley College professor Eric Clanton was arraigned Friday morning for an alleged bike-lock assault on pro-Trump supporters in Berkeley last month, the videos of the violent attack – along with a raucous and ongoing commentary of outrage from all sides – went viral on social media. Related Articles Bay Area college professor used U-shaped bike lock in beating, police say

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Clanton, who was in custody in lieu of $200,000 bail at Berkeley Jail, appeared in court Friday morning at Oakland’s Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse to face charges of three counts of suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon that isn’t a firearm and assault causing great bodily injury, the chatter and visual images seemed to self-propagate by the hour. On Facebook, Twitter and reader forums on multiple news sites, the unfettered back-and-forth bashing raged on, much like a rhetorical version of the actual melee itself.

The alleged assaults, which were captured in troubling videos taken by onlookers and posted on social media, helped police identify Clanton as the man seen hitting people in the head with a U-shaped bicycle lock. Three people received “significant injuries” because of the beatings, police said. Homicide detectives handled the investigation because of the seriousness of the assaults, police said, and Clanton surrendered without incident.

The fight broke out during a rally that included Trump supporters and opponents as well as so-called anti-fascist, or “antifa,” groups that have been implicated in previous political protests that turned violent. Conservatives jumped online to celebrate Clanton’s arrest, while some took to the Internet to voice their anger about it and others weighed in from a range of political vantage points. As the story developed throughout the week, the cacophony gathered and spread online.

Here’s what some of it looked like:

Scumbag bike lock attacker Eric Clanton finally arrested. #Berkeley https://t.co/rIr4TpIeF3 — Patrick Gunnels (@pgunnels) May 25, 2017

Online forums on news sites were full of comments, ranging from hearty defenses of the attacker to segues into Hilary Clinton’s role in the Benghazi scandal and the current controversy over members of Trump’s team who’ve been implicated in the Russia inquiry.

“Amazing,” wrote “Stan,” that “this Patriot is charged with a crime while Kushner- a Russian mole- takes in our deepest security secrets…to give to mother Russia.”

In response, another commenter wrote: “A Patriot is someone who violently attacks someone with a bike lock who clearly did not harm the attacker? Okay man.”

A man was wounded after being struck by someone with a bike lock April 15 during Berkeley protests. Police say they have identified the assailant as Eric Clanton. (Photo: Daniel McPartlan)

And this, from ”Deplorable Chuck:”

“What this arrest shows is the Antifa are not, as so many thought, loser kids who live in vans somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. They are not street kids. They are not squatters. They are people with day jobs in the system, maybe even prominent people. They are frustrated democrats who voted for Hillary, and now they’re putting on masks and taking to the streets and committing acts of violence. This is the committed, democrat mainstream doing this stuff…not “fringe” people.”

Meanwhile, many commenters duked it out with each other online over the alleged attacker:

“This hoodlum bully is what passes as a college professor these days!” wrote “itsy_bitsy. ”We need new laws that make it a criminal offense with a mandatory jail sentence for any “so called” college professor attacking anyone in a riot. This was not self defense, this was an offensive attack! I have had it with these criminals that are filling our schools and universities and collecting huge salaries for their “so called” teaching! These people are simply anarchists who are determined to destroy our system of governance!”

To which “Johnnie” replied: “That’s ridiculous. Huge salaries? You need to do better research. They make next to nothing starting out. And it would be ridiculous to have special laws for college professors. What next – special laws for truck drivers? Bicyclists? Software engineers? Because those commit more violent offenses than college professors.”