August 27, 2017

Berkeley Calms as Counterprotesters Declare Victory

Scattered violence gives way to celebration.

Comedian W. Kamau Bell and others celebrate in Berkeley on Sunday.Madison Pauly

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Right-wing rallies planned for San Francisco largely fizzled on Saturday, but thousands of counterprotesters filled the streets, demonstrating against hate. Today, all eyes turn to Berkeley. As we explained last week:

[O]n Sunday, August 27, an estimated 300 people are supposed to descend on an anti-communist rally, known as ā€œNo to Marxism in America,ā€ in Berkeleyā€™s Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. The online eventā€™s organizer, Amber Cummings, recently decried white nationalists and called for nonviolent demonstrations; she posted on Facebook, ā€œI myself am a transsexual female who embraces diversity and loves diversity. This event is not a event of hate speech.ā€ Even still, politicians and city officials have expressed concern that the rally could attract far-right agitators, particularly as the location was the site of clashes between right-wing groups and counterdemonstrators earlier this year.

It’s unclear whether that event will actually happen. On Friday, Cummings released a statement saying, “I will be attending the event alone. I stress I DO NOT WANT ANYONE COMING and if they do you will be turned away.” Meanwhile, Joey Gibson, the organizer of Saturday’s unsuccessful right-wing “Patriot Prayer” rally, wrote yesterday that his group would descend on Berkeley on Sunday.

Regardless of what happens, counterprotesters are expected to be out in force. We’ve got reporters on the scene and will keep you up to date on the latest developments.

2:50 pm PT: The crowd, consisting of both antifa and everyday folks, has decamped from Berkeley’s Civic Center Park, marched a few blocks to Ohlone Park on Berkeley’s Northside, and declared victory. Things have calmed down, at least for now. And hey, look who’s at the barricades…

https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/901930363240333312

2:32 pm PT:

Madison Pauly also has been talking with the medics:

Another Mojo reporter required their services:

https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/901915423653871616

2:26 pm PT:

1:50 pm PT: Mojo reporters confirm police are firing off teargas at antifa crowd. And reports of rubber bullets as well. Things have turned very sour.

https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/901910367239938048

https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/901909988792180737

(SF Chronicle reporter Lizzie Johnson tweeted this update later…)

https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/901909971637379072

1:30 pm PT: Black Bloc crowd has taken over Civic Center park.

1:21 pm PT: Berkeley Police donning gas masks. An officer told our reporter they may use gasā€”without warning.

https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/901902402462261248

1:00 pm PT:

12:55 pm PT:

12:30 pm PT:

https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/901882141180440576

12:20 pm PT:

https://twitter.com/m_katzzz/status/901886363414347776

12:10 pm PT:

We have no words to add to this.

12:07 pm PT:

#RESIST.

12:05 pm PT:

Right-wing activists seem to be vastly outnumbered by counterprotesters once again.

https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/901881438198423553

12:00 pm PT:

Police are breaking up scuffles between Trump supporters and counterprotesters:

https://twitter.com/shane_bauer/status/901881013332094976

https://twitter.com/m_katzzz/status/901881215703060480

10:50 am PT:

Counterprotesters are gathering for Berkeley’s Rally Against Hate.

10:40 am PT:

Small confrontations are already taking place.

10:25 am PT:

More than 500 police officers are on hand to try to control the crowds and prevent the type of violence that happened in Charlottesville.

https://twitter.com/m_katzzz/status/901853219764051968

 

10:17 am PT:

Gibson is still saying he plans to appear in Berkeley todayā€¦

ā€¦residents of Berkeley, meanwhile, are making their views clear.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We canā€™t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

The upshot: Being able to rally $253,000 in donations over these next few weeks is vitally important simply because it is the number that keeps us right on track, helping make sure we don't end up with a bigger gap than can be filled again, helping us avoid any significant (and knowable) cash-flow crunches for now. We used to be more nonchalant about coming up short this time of year, thinking we can make it by the time June rolls around. Not anymore.

Because the in-depth journalism on underreported beats and unique perspectives on the daily news you turn to Mother Jones for is only possible because readers fund us. Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism we exist to do. The only investors who wonā€™t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its futureā€”you.

And we need readers to show up for us big timeā€”again.

Getting just 10 percent of the people who care enough about our work to be reading this blurb to part with a few bucks would be utterly transformative for us, and that's very much what we need to keep charging hard in this financially uncertain, high-stakes year.

If you can right now, please support the journalism you get from Mother Jones with a donation at whatever amount works for you. And please do it now, before you move on to whatever you're about to do next and think maybe you'll get to it later, because every gift matters and we really need to see a strong response if we're going to raise the $253,000 we need in less than three weeks.

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