Lessons learned from Sunday’s clash of protesters in Berkeley

Dozens of masked anarchists stand together after police left Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley on Sunday. Police said they stepped aside because of concerns about the safety of their officers and the public. less Dozens of masked anarchists stand together after police left Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley on Sunday. Police said they stepped aside because of concerns about the safety of their officers ... more Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Lessons learned from Sunday’s clash of protesters in Berkeley 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

When the right wing comes to left-wing Berkeley, public safety is no guarantee, especially when black-clad anarchists get involved.

Sunday proved that no matter how well prepared they were, hundreds of police officers — many in riot gear — could not stop hundreds of anarchists from overtaking a place they were protecting.

For a few hours, police maintained order at Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park in Berkeley. They used barriers and a single entry-checkpoint to control who and what got in. They confiscated sticks, water bottles and anything else from rally-goers that could be used as weapons. Inside the park, they broke up heated arguments between the left and the right before punches were thrown.

Yet, police stepped aside and allowed anarchists to bypass barriers to get into the park. Soon mobs chased and beat right-wing demonstrators who had arrived expecting to attend a conservative rally.

Conservatives accused police of abandoning them.

“We were thrown into the belly of the beast,” said Kris Wyrick, 39, of San Diego, one of a small group of conservatives still in Civic Center Park when it was overtaken.

Wyrick wore body armor when he showed up at the park with his wife and son, expecting a rally. He had to remove the protection when he and his family went through a security check. But when anarchists arrived, “they came in, and the cops left,” he said. “It was almost like it was choreographed.”

Police said they decided to stand down out of concern for safety.

“They seemed to target police,” said Officer Jennifer Coats, a police spokeswoman. “They were up on the back of a flatbed truck. Officers heard them making announcements that peaceful protesters should leave if they didn’t want to be part of a conflict. We had to weigh what to do.”

Amid thousands of mostly peaceful protesters, police arrested just 13 people, including six on suspicion of violent behavior. Six others reported non-life-threatening injuries, and two of those people were taken to the hospital.

Yet the inability of police to stop the anarchists from seizing control of the park raises questions about their ability to protect public safety next month when Ben Shapiro, a former editor with the right-wing Breitbart News, is scheduled to speak at UC Berkeley on Sept. 14. Conservative student groups are also talking about bringing in other speakers, including Milo Yiannopoulos.

In February, Yiannopoulos, another former Breitbart News editor, had to be spirited to safety when a riot broke out on campus just before he had been scheduled to speak. Black-masked agitators swarmed onto campus and caused $100,000 in damage — breaking glass and setting fires — before taking the mayhem into city streets.

Fearing a repeat of the damage, UC officials then refused to accommodate conservative Ann Coulter for a spring speaking date she insisted on — and are now defending themselves in court against an accusation by Coulter and student Republicans that the university discriminates against conservatives.

Berkeley police also lost control of a right-wing rally on April 15 at Civic Center Park. A video shows neo-Nazi Nathan Damigo punching a young woman in the face during the ensuing confrontation when counterprotesters showed up.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ, who took over the top job in July, has said she is committed to ensuring that a variety of voices are heard on campus, and has declared a Year of Free Speech on campus. She recently said that shutting down antithetical views is un-American.

“The heckler’s veto strikes at the very heart of our democracy and the mission and principles of our society,” Christ told students last week as they returned to campus. “Any (such) attack is an attack on the right of free speech for us all.”

Some members of the left who identify not as anarchists but as antifascists, or antifa, said that preventing right-wing activists from having their say on Sunday is exactly what they intended to do. They said they wanted to prevent anyone from spewing racist rhetoric, as white supremacists did in a Charlottesville, Va. rally this month, where an alleged neo-Nazi drove his car into a crowd of antihate demonstrators. A woman was killed and 19 people were injured.

John Cookenboo, 27, who says he’s with antifa, acknowledged that some interactions Sunday between left and right became violent, and that unnecessary force can backfire and make his side look bad. But he said showing strength is important.

“I can’t condone that kind of violence personally, but I can’t condemn it entirely,” he said, noting that first-timers who get their information from the Internet might be itching to “just go punch a Nazi.”

Wyrick, the man who brought his family for what he thought would be a conservative rally on Sunday, denied being a racist or a bigot. He said he came to Berkeley to share his political views, which he said run to the right fiscally but not socially.

Wyrick said he tried to leave the rally when he and fellow protesters were overwhelmed by the masked anarchists and felt that their safety, if not their lives, was threatened. He said he pushed his way through the crowd — and was arrested on suspicion of public fighting.

Public officials and others generally gave police good marks for keeping people safe Sunday.

“Mostly people were protected,” said Henry Brady, dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. “We’re getting better at it. It’s hard because some groups want to act in a vociferous manner. And both sides think that what’s at stake is incredibly important.”

Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said Monday that it’s time to call out groups like the masked anarchists known as black bloc.

“I think we should classify them as a gang,” Arreguin said. “They have weapons — almost like a militia — and I think we need to think about that in terms of our law enforcement approach.”

On Sunday, police deployed about 400 officers, including police from Berkeley, Oakland, UC Berkeley and Alameda County.

While it’s not clear how many officers the city relied on for past protests, rioters at the aborted Yiannopoulos event at UC Berkeley encountered just 85, Christ said.

But even 400 wasn’t enough to stop all violence. Video showed anarchists shoving a President Trump supporter to the ground and beating him, which prompted Al Letson, a radio host for Reveal, to jump in and shield the victim.

In another case, anarchists pepper-sprayed Joey Gibson, the head of the right-wing Patriot Prayer. They threw cans at him and chased him into a line of riot-clad police, who briefly handcuffed Gibson and a companion before determining they were no threat and letting them go.

Photo: Gabrielle Lurie, The Chronicle Police officers stand by during a protest at Martin Luther King Jr....