Trump supporters planning to take to the streets of Berkeley

A woman walks past graffiti sprayed on the Bank of America branch at Telegraph and Durant avenues in Berkeley, Calif. on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017, a day after a protest against an appearance by former Breitbart News editor Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Berkeley turned violent. less A woman walks past graffiti sprayed on the Bank of America branch at Telegraph and Durant avenues in Berkeley, Calif. on Thursday, Feb. 2, 2017, a day after a protest against an appearance by former Breitbart ... more Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 48 Caption Close Trump supporters planning to take to the streets of Berkeley 1 / 48 Back to Gallery

A march supporting President Trump is expected to take place in Berkeley on Saturday, and while city officials said there’s little credible evidence of a major event materializing, they are worried about what will happen if counterprotesters show up.

The event billed as a “march for freedom,” comes a little more than a month after violence broke out over a scheduled — then canceled — appearance at UC Berkeley by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

The march, according to a Facebook event page, is set to begin at 2 p.m. Saturday at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park — less than a mile from the UC Berkeley campus.

The “March 4 Trump” national website listed the Berkeley event as one of 49 planned across 31 states and Washington D.C.

More than a quarter of the marches are expected to draw crowds of fewer than 50 people, and 12 expect more than 200 supporters to turn out, with the largest group, 563 people, saying they’ll attend in Austin, Texas, according to the Facebook event pages linked to by the “March 4 Trump” website.

As of Wednesday, about 110 people said on Facebook that they would attend the Berkeley march.

But Berkeley officials said that no one has applied for a street event permit for Saturday.

The Berkeley municipal code requires organizers of marches, demonstrations, assemblies and other gatherings in public places to obtain permits from the city.

“Organized groups that have been labeled as participating have said that they are not participating when we’ve reached out to them,” said Matthai Chakko, a spokesman for the city of Berkeley.

“It’s one of those things where social media has contributed to people thinking something is going to happen when there’s no people we can find actually claiming to be affiliated in an organized way,” he said.

He expressed concern that opposition groups might have a disproportionate reaction to what appears to be a small, loosely organized event.

Some trepidation from the city is understandable given the destructiveness of protests that broke out in response to the Feb. 1 visit to UC Berkeley by Yiannopoulos, the incendiary former Breitbart News editor. Yiannopoulos was invited to speak at the school by the Berkeley College Republicans, but the appearance was canceled as some people protesting the event turned violent.

Those protests, which devolved into what was labeled “rioting” and “domestic terrorism“ by some right-wing pundits, led to $100,000 in damage, several injuries and three arrests — as well as the spread of indelible images like that of a car plowing through a crowd blocking the street with a protester clinging to its hood.

The protests prompted President Trump to threaten to pull federal funding from UC Berkeley.

“If UC Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view - NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” the president tweeted a day after the violent Berkeley protest.

Sgt. Sabrina Reich, a spokeswoman for the UC Police Department, said campus police are aware of Saturday’s march and have been in communication with the Berkeley Police Department, but did not elaborate further on specific public safety plans.

Meetings have been held to discuss the best way to protect local businesses, said Berkeley Chamber of Commerce CEO Kirsten MacDonald.

“The city is working together in conjunction with many organizations, police and our mayor’s office to make sure that stores on the main thoroughfare are as hardened and prepared as possible,” MacDonald said.

Some people planning to attend the march said their participation is a rebuttal to the treatment Yiannopoulos received in Berkeley.

“This is a day where we gather peacefully in response to what happened on February 1,” Twitter user Kathy Zhu said in a video promoting Saturday’s march that has since been retweeted over 1,000 times. “Now this wasn’t just a lecture being shut down, this is a direct assault on our First Amendment rights.”

Zhu directed a request for comment on the march to an event organizer identifying himself as Rich Black on Facebook. Reached by email, Black confirmed the march was taking place, but declined to answer questions about other groups involved, expected turnout or public safety plans.

“I find it funny that you are asking the very questions that the radical fringe left has attempted to get out of myself and others involved with this protest,” Black said in an email to The Chronicle. “If we refused that information to those who aim to harm us, why would we volunteer that information to those who aim to publicize it?”

Another group that promoted the event in early February, Proud Boys USA, whose members describe themselves as “Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.” Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes has since disavowed the connection between the group and the march on Berkeley, tweeting, “#ProudBoys never agreed to be part of this march. I'm out,” and telling Black that he had “put the cart before the horse.”

Black declined to comment on McInnes’ change of heart.

On Facebook, Black specified the march was not a fascist or white nationalist event, and that white supremacists would be “ejected” should they try to attend.

“Let it be known that this event and those who have sponsored and organized it have no association with any white nationalist or Neo-Nazi group,” Black wrote on Feb. 24.

However, even that seemingly simple denunciation of Neo-Nazism did not go unopposed.

“This is a pro trump march. Anyone who supports trump should be able to come,” prospective attendee Melody Faw wrote on Facebook. “I’m against excluding anyone.”